New World: A Hoenn Journey
by LyssieBee
Summary: The world has become a place riddled with crime, but that hasn't stopped fifteen year old Eli from leaving on her pokemon journey. But when her childhood best friend who now is a gentleman and Brendan, Professor Birch's son join her on her journey, what could possibly go wrong? Rated M for language and later content.
1. The Journey Begins

**Holy crap, my first fanfic ever... Usually, I'm not big into writing stuff involving characters already in existence but since I do I have deep place in my heart for Hoenn and Riley. Well, this fic was born. I would love some constructive criticism but blatant flames aren't appreciated :( Also if you find any grammatical errors feel free to point them out, I'm not the best self-editor xD Hope you enjoy.**

A harsh barking rang through the silence, cutting the foggy unconsciousness from my mind. Swinging my arm around I slammed my hand down on my small electric poochyena alarm clock and sighed. The bright digital numbers read 7:00 AM and I grumbled grouchily, "Why does everything have to start so damn early?" I began to sit up, stretching out my body and I began to yawn loudly. Still feeling groggy, I rolled out of my bed not even giving the dishevelled blankets a second glance. Stumbling over to my dresser I grabbed the clothing I had set out on top and began to strip out of my pyjamas. Leaning heavily on my dresser I pulled down my short plaid shorts and felt a cool draft come from underneath my door, cursing I swiftly slid on a pair of panties and than my dark grey leggings, although the thin nylon fabric didn't save me from the cool breeze coming from crack in my door. Deciding to finish changing quickly, I whipped my fleece button up shirt off, tossing it without thought across the room. Than I slipped on my bra and than pulled my orange sleeveless dress on. I quickly straightened the black collar and made sure the white strip down the front was straight. I turned to my left and took a glance at my profile in my full length mirror, checking out my curvy figure in my tight dress assemble. But unfortunately, my hair needed tending too. It's red waves and curls were flipping and rippling in all the wrong places. Sighing audibly, I picked up my green bag and clipped it's straps around the dip of my waist. Taking another look at my hair I quickly grabbed a pair of black socks, black gloves and my favourite green bandana. With everything I needed from my dresser, I headed off to the bathroom to finish my morning routine.

After dealing with my hair, applying a tiny bit of makeup and finishing dressing, I was ready to head down stairs. Fully ready, I began to feel a ball of excitement beginning to whelm up deep down in my stomach. You see, today I was getting my first pokemon from Professor Birch. During my morning funk it had escaped my mind but after being refreshed the thought had returned. I was going to get my first pokemon! My family had always had pokemon around since my mother had been co-ordinator in her prime and my father had been a successful trainer many years ago, as I walked down the stairs I was greeted with big sloppy kisses from some of our family pokemon, my father's Mightyena and Houndoom. I both gave them a little kiss on the nose and walked over to the kitchen where my mom was standing in front of a pan full of eggs and sausages. "Morning, Eli-beli~" She chimed brightly and as she spoke she pulled the pan from the hot stove and walked over to the table to distribute the content of the pan onto three plates. I sat down and picked up the fork and returned my mother's greeting, "Morning mom." I glanced at the third plate and exclaimed, "Dad's home?" My mother grinned, her voice becoming giddy as she spoke, "When he heard you where getting your first pokemon today, he flew home right away!" She giggled.

She was always so happy when dad came home. Mom always reminded me of a schoolgirl that way. But I couldn't help but feel a tiny bit excited about dad coming home to see me off, I rarely got to see him since he was always off dealing with conflicts across the Hoenn region. I guess I should explain a little bit. My family is originally from the Sinnoh region and both my parents were very well known pokemon users but after I was born my father realized the life of a trainer was no way to support his family so he trained to become a ranger, but finding positions at the ranger posts is no easy feat and eventually my family had to move to the Hoenn region, and by that time I was already eight years old. Moving from Canalave City had been scary for me but after moving to Littleroot Town our lives got much better. Our house was bigger and we even had a big backyard! (That had been hi-light for my eight year old self) With years passed, it brings us to now with me getting ready to leave for my own pokemon adventure. I finished eating my meal and looked at the time, it was quarter to eight. It would only take five minutes to walk over to Professor Birch's laboratory so that left me ten minutes of free time. Mom sat down across the table from me and she asked me, "So do you know what pokemon you want to have as your first?" I knew exactly what to tell her, I had thought about this a lot, and although I thought all three were absolutely adorable I decided I wanted to get the water type, "I'm hoping to get Mudkip." She nodded and began telling a story about how she came up against a Swampert (the final evolution of Mudkip) in one of her top ranking competitions when we still lived in Sinnoh but she was interrupted when a tall man walked through our front door, and I recognized him instantly, shooting up from my seat I tackled him in a hug, "Daddy!"

He gave me a warm hug back and patted my bandana clad head, "Glad to see you too, Eli." My mom walked over with less enthusiasm than me but anyone could see by her face that was she was absolutely glowing with glee. I released my dad from my iron hug to let my mother at my father. She came face to face with him and just looked at him for a moment and than planted a big kiss on him. Feeling weird about watching, I awkwardly looked down at our hardwood floors. After they had finish they're… Greeting, dad turned to me and laughed, "My own daughter decided to grow up while I was gone. What has the world come too!" I couldn't help but giggle as he came and put his arm around my shoulder. "How about I walk you too Professor Birch's, maybe we can catch up." I glanced at the clock and I smiled, "Sure." With that mom cut in, "Eli, do you have everything you need. Extra pairs of socks? Underwear? Floss?" I nodded, rolling my eyes. She gave me a sly look and than she pointed at the bag around my waist, "Well, I took it in my own hands to repack your bag with everything you need. I've known my daughter for fifteen years, and Arceus knows that she wouldn't pack everything she needed." She paused and gave me an unimpressed look, "Do you really need to take all those graphic novels with you?" I looked to my father to back me up but he erupted into laughter at the situation.

I shook it off and began to leave, "Bye mom." I said, a tiny bit snarky.

"Make sure to phone me when you get to Oldale Pokemon Centre!"

"I will, mom."

I than headed out through the front door with my father following behind. Once we got out onto the dirt path, my dad began the conversation, "So what has my mysteriously mature daughter been up too?"

"Nothing much, going to school, talking to people, preparing to travel Hoenn." I shrugged. There was a long silence, almost awkward. I guess that's what happens when you don't see someone for months for a time. But finally my dad thought of something to say.

"You know, when I began my pokemon journey I was only ten years old, you know? Back in the day, kids used to leave home earlier than they do now. But I guess the world has changed."

I could see he was a tiny bit worried about me leaving home, when he was a kid, leaving on a pokemon journey was just a milestone that most kids went through twenty sum years ago and it had been perfectly safe. But over the years, criminal activities have sky-rocketed and most kids didn't leave for pokemon journeys until they were at least in their late teens. But I guess I was a bit impatient. "Don't worry, dad. I'll be fine."

He didn't look so sure, "I wish you would just take one of my or your mother's pokemon as your first. It would be safer." I groaned.

"But I want to raise my own!" I remember having a similar talk with him over the phone a couple weeks ago. I knew having Mightyena, Houndoom or even one of our various other pokemon with me would probably be the safest route but they would never be my pokemon.

My dad sighed, "I know, I know." The five minutes had passed quickly and we were standing in front of Professor Birch's lab in no time. "I guess this is where we say good bye."

I nodded solemnly, "Yup, I promise Dad. I'll be safe."

"I know, kiddo." He patted me on the head and started to head back home. I turned to the door and took a deep breath, this was a big step in my life and I took a step towards the door when I heard dad call, "Make sure to phone us!" And I couldn't help but cringe, "I WILL!"

With that, I quickly entered the laboratory without any second thoughts. I was quickly greeted by one of Birch's various assistants.

"Hello Eli!" Than asked, "Are you here to see Professor Birch?" I nodded and they quickly led me to him. Darting through a hallway, they took me to a white room filled with bookshelves and in the centre stood Professor Birch. To say the least, Birch was not a thin man. Not fat either. Somewhere in between. But with his chocolate brown hair and round, stubble covered face he was one of the most friendly looking people around. He was looking at a sassy looking Torchic when I entered the room with his assistant and he literally bounded over to me and patted my back, pushing me further into the room, "Wonderful to see you Eli. I'm assuming you're here to get your first pokemon, am I right?"

"Yup." I smiled and gave him a thumbs up. He pushed me up to the Torchic and it began to pull at the laces of my running shoes.

"So, I'm guessing you want the Torchic, right? I know the Torchic is a _very _popular choice among girls." I shook my head, eyeing the Torchic as it chewed and attempted to swallow my black shoe laces.

"Umm, actually, I'm interested in the Mudkip." I thought about the cute little water pokemon. It's blue skin and puffy orange cheeks with the little spike. Simply adorable.

Professor Birch looked at me for a moment and than brought his hand up to stroke his stumble, "Hmmm… Now where did I leave that pokeball." He patted down the pockets on his shorts and than the ones on his lab coat. I almost palmed my face. How could he misplace one of the pokemon. Finally, he managed to pull out a small red and white ball from the chest pocket of his lab coat and it had a little blue sticker on it. Handing it too me, it felt much heavier in my hand than I expected and he urged me, "Let your new pokemon out."

Pressing the white button, the pokeball grew larger in my hand and with one more click a white light sprung from the pokeball as it cracked open. Squinting, I saw a little blue pokemon standing in front of me. It's eyes were closed but as it slowly adjusted to the lighting, and saw that two people that were looking at it, it hid it's head with it's front paws and whimpered, "Muudkip."

Professor Birch sighed, "Mudkip is very shy, she isn't very comfortable with strangers." I looked at him and than at my new pokemon.

"She's a she?" I asked as I began to crouch down on my knees so I could talk to the Mudkip face to face.

"That she is." Birch replied.

I laid down on my stomach and put out my hand to the Mudkip, "Hello there. I'm going to be your trainer." Ever so slowly the water pokemon uncovered her face and carefully put one of her paws into my extended hand and I shook it gently. "Glad to meet you Mudkip."

Birch smiled at the encounter, "Do you want to give Mudkip a nickname?"

I looked at Mudkip and looked into her bright black eyes and than said, "How about Kite?" And than Mudkip, or should I say Kite simply bursted with glee. Birch began to chuckle.

"Seems like Kite likes the name." He said and I couldn't help but nod and laugh with him.

**Please review :)**


	2. The Path I Walk

**Here's chapter two xD. I hope you liked chapter one (Even though it was as slow as molasses sliding down a wall). Major corniness warning later this chapter... Just... Yeah... It's corny... You've been warned. **

Some paperwork and technicalities later, I was set with a pokedex, Kite's pokeball and my trainer's ID. I waved Professor Birch a good bye and I was off on my journey. I was so excited. I recalled all the stories my parents told me about their adventures and I couldn't wait to start.

I had Kite walking happily beside me, I felt no need to return her to her pokeball. And anyway, it'd be lonely walking by myself. With a few goodbyes to the local townspeople I found my way to route one hundred and one. _The Route Where Journeys Begin _I remember it being called. If i followed this path it should take me straight to Oldale. I think it was about a days walk. But with the sun growing higher into the sky and the temperature rising, I think I'd be taking plenty breaks on the way.

As I walked, I was also sight seeing. I never really left Littleroot town before, not even to venture to Oldale for groceries (My mother insisted on me staying home when she did travel to Oldale or even Petalburg) The foliage seemed greener but it could simply be my imagination and I looked down at the dirt road I was walking and imagined all the new trainers starting their journey on this very road. But than I simply palmed my forehead, why was I getting so sentimental. It was just a road for Pete's sake. I looked down at Kite and she seemed like she was getting tired already. I had to keep in mind that she really was just a baby. I stopped walking and Kite looked up at me confused, I kneeled down and stretched out my arm, "Want me to carry you?" Kite looked at me suspiciously for a moment and than climbed up, resting comfortable on my right shoulder. "Better?" And Kite replied with a few happy 'Mudkips'.

It seemed like we had been walking for hours when we were confronted with an angry looking Poochyena. It barked viciously and proceeded to approach me. Kite, surprisingly, jumped from my shoulder and put a barrier between me and the Poochyena. I thought Professor Birch said that Kite was a shy pokemon! But nevertheless, Kite confronted the Poochyena with the confidence of a Charizard. Than Kite looked back at me and barked at me boldly, "Mud mud, mudkip."

I realize that Kite was asking for a command from me and I shakily said, "Err… W-Water gun!" Than as I asked, Kite shot a strong beam of water at the Poochyena and it yelped. It began to shimmy and shake, trying to get the water off and than laid down and rolled around. Before I knew what I was doing, I pulled an empty pokeball from my bag and tossed it at the distracted Pokemon. As quickly as I threw the pokeball, the Poochyena disappeared in a red flash. Kite ran over to the pokeball and watched it intently and I quickly joined her. I was about to pick it up when it began to wiggle back and forth and Kite jumped back. Swiftly darting behind my leg, she peeked at the wiggling ball and we waited. After a few moments the ball stopped moving and made a little click sound. I paused for another long moment before I said, with an unsure tone, "I caught… Poochyena?" I picked up the ball and let out my new pokemon. It looked slightly dazed but quickly realized what had happened. It looked at me and than turned up it's nose. "Why you-" I was about to give the pokemon a piece of my mind when Kite darted over to the pokemon and began to spew off some pokemon talk. It looked like the Poochyena was trying not to listen but than eventually was pulled in by Kite's argument. The dark type pokemon looked at me and than at Kite, "Poochye, yena?" And Kite replied with a chipper, "Mudkip!"

Reluctantly, Poochyena came over to me and licked my hand. I looked from the dog pokemon to Kite with a look of disbelief. I grumbled, "Arceus only knows what the Hell just happened…" Kite looking pretty satisfied with herself, requested to be put back on my shoulder and Poochyena walked slowly at my side. Looking down at Poochyena I thought out loud, "I need a nickname for you." I brought my hand up to rub my chin. "But I need to know if you're a boy or a girl." At this, Poochyena's ears perked up but it was too late already. With one swift movement I knew the gender of my new pokemon. "A boy, eh?" I needed a masculine name than. I thought hard as we walked and the sun was nearly at it's highest point by the time I figured out a good name. "How about… Kuro?" I asked my male pokemon. He didn't look pleased or displeased with the name so I took that as a yes. "Kuro it is." I smiled. My day was just turning out great. I couldn't see a single thing going wrong.

With one night spent sleeping on the ground, I finally made it to the small town of Oldale. It wasn't much bigger than Littleroot but it did have a pokemart and a pokemon centre. I thought the first thing I should do was head to the pokemon centre and rent my room for the night. It was only noon but rooms tend to fill up fast. I walked through the automatic doors and was greeted by a large pink Chansey. She pointed at my two pokemon that were still out of their pokeballs and I assumed she was offering to take them to be healed. Since we were here, I thought it might be a good idea so I nodded and returned both of them to their pokeballs. She was than off with them.

I looked around the building, it was a very comfortable, but mostly pinks and cream coloured. A lot like a Chansey actually. The decor was round too. I headed to the front desk where I assumed Nurse Joy would be but she was no where to be found. I noticed a small silver bell sitting no the desk and proceeded to ring it and the nurse appeared from the back room. "Oh, I'm sorry. I was tending to some pokemon, how may I help you?"

"Could I get a room for the night?" I asked shyly.

"Sure thing. Could I take your pokemon for you also?"

"No, the Chansey at the front door already took them."

She looked confused by that for a moment but she quickly dismissed it. Obviously it was no big deal. "You can wait in the lounge for your pokemon to be healed or you can head up to your room right now." She pushed a key-card across the counter, "It's number fourteen." I thanked Nurse Joy and headed over to the lounge and plopped down on one of the various white rounded sofas and sighed. I should phone mom and dad right now but I was here considerably earlier. It could wait until it's later. Maybe in the evening. I rested my head on the back of the couch when I heard a masculine voice talking to Nurse Joy. Something about it was somehow familiar to me. I straightened my back and turned my head so I could peek over the back of the couch. A boy that looked around my age was talking to the nurse and he was clad in a pair of black jeans and a blue suit jacket. He handed Nurse Joy three pokeballs and picked up a hat off the counter which I presumed he had taken off before hand. When he turned around and I saw his face I couldn't help but blurt, "Riley?" His dark grey eyes widen and he pushed some of his black hair out of his face as he replied with as much surprise as I did, "Eli?"

I bounded over the couch and literally tackled him with a hug. "What are you doing in Hoenn?" I released him from my bear hug, I couldn't believe how much taller he was than me.

He looked a tiny bit shocked at seeing me, but he tried to collect himself as he put his hat on, covering his long disheveled hair. "I was actually heading to Littleroot town to visit you. Since I we haven't even seen each other since you moved away."

I punched him in the shoulder, "You nearly missed me. I'm heading off on my pokemon journey." I couldn't believe Riley was coming to visit me, and the fact we had crossed paths this way. I hadn't seen Riley since I've moved away from Canalave City when I was only eight. He had been my best friend and we used to play all the time. We even went and played on Iron Island when we could persuade the sailors to take us there. But don't tell my mom about that. We had kept up through letters and emails and sometimes even phone calls, but never had either of us visited each other. Riley smiled brightly and said, "Good thing I stopped here to get my pokemon healed here than."

I laughed, "I just can't believe I'm seeing you again." I took a good long look at him and I began to realize how handsome he had really become. I remember my mother doting on him when I was young, saying how cute he was. But being a little kid, appearances didn't really matter. But now… I could feel a little blush rising to my cheeks.

"You in there Eli?" He asked and I quickly replied, "What?"

"I was just saying, maybe we can share a room. That way we could catch up." He said, slightly disgruntled at my absent-mindedness. "Oh sure, yeah." I said without really thinking.

"Cool." He grinned happily, "Well see you later. I'll talk to Nurse Joy about the room arrangement now but I than gotta go shopping for supplies and stuff." He patted me on the head and headed off on his business.

Oh dear, what had I just agreed too.

**Please review, if you will :)**


	3. Mistakes

**Hehe, Chapter 3, just for all of you to know, I've had this little piece sitting in some dank back corner of my laptop for months now so you'll be getting a tidal wave of chapters and than probably... maybe... A chapter a week... Maybe... Hehe, but thank you for any of you that have read it so far.**

So after meeting my old best friend, who now is a very handsome teenage boy I find myself sitting in the Pokemon Centre lounge contemplating what led me to sharing a room with this boy. And it was a simple answer, because I don't think before I talk. I don't understand why I was panicking about this. It wasn't like he was going to put the moves on me. He was my best friend, and I even doubted that he'd like me like that, or ever would for that matter. Because one, he's known me for so long, I might just be like his sister and two, I'm not hot like he is.

I cringed at calling him hot. It was wrong. There is certain guidelines to being best friends and one of them is to never think your best friend is hot!

Now thinking about this some more, I realize I wasn't panicking because I was afraid he might put the moves on me but rather, I might put the moves on him! That would be simply embarrassing. What the Hell am I going to do….?

I needed to stop thinking about this, that's what I need to do. I stood up from the couches and than decided the best way to stop thinking about Riley would be to call mom. She's the biggest buzz kill I know. I walked over to the video phone that every Pokemon Centre has and dialled home. Mom picked up immediately and exclaimed, "There's my little Eli-Beli!" She smiled and I sighed.

"Hi mom. I'm in Oldale Town, and I already caught a Poochyena!" I smiled, I was really happy that I already had two pokemon, Kite and Kuro.

"That's wonderful darling. Now be careful, I heard that Oldale Town is having some problems with pokemon thieves so make sure to keep an eye on your pokemon." She gave me a serious finger waggling.

"Yup mom, my pokemon are being healed right now so they should be fine." I smiled. Even when the world was becoming a dangerous place, people could always depend on Pokemon Centres to be there. I remembered Riley for a moment and thought I should mention it to her, "Mom, remember Riley from Canalave City?"

She thought for a moment and than replied, "You mean that cute little boy you always played with?" She gestured to her hair, "With the long black hair that always stuck up?" I nodded and she continued, "What about him?"

"I met him in the Pokemon Centre today! He was actually on his way to visit me!" I exclaimed, I still thought the idea was exciting even though I was still having some turbulence with the concept of sharing a room with him.

My mother clapped her hands together and chimed, "I didn't even realize you kept in touch with him, he was such a nice little boy. You two were adorable together." I blushed slightly, knowing full well she had pictures to prove it.

"Yeah yeah, whatever mom." I said bashfully. I could hear dad in the kitchen, smashing around and I could hear him call, "Hun, where's the pokefood?" I giggled, "I think he needs your help."

Mom groaned, "He always makes a complete mess before asking where it is. Bye sweetheart, have fun~" Than the line went dead and the screen black. I got up from the stool right in front of the video phone and looked at the Snorlax themed clock hanging on the wall, it had been an hour. My pokemon should be healed up, I went to the front desk and asked Nurse Joy, "Are my pokemon healed up?"

She looked at me and than at her computer, "ID number?"

"58641." I replied promptly, knowing the number already off by heart. She scanned the computer screen quickly and than said, "Sorry, we don't have any pokemon registered under that number."

"That has to be a mistake." I said, feeling a tiny ball of worry growing in the pit of my stomach. "I'm sorry but that's what it says." She replied.

I leaned over the counter and began to panic, "No, I have a little girl Mudkip named Kite and a male Poochyena named Kuro. You have to have them here somewhere."

The nurse looked slightly put off by my boldness. "For the record Miss, you never gave me your pokemon to begin with." Than something clicked in my head, pokemon thieves.

My mother said something about there being trouble with thieves in Oldale recently, oh Arceus…

I bolted out of the Pokemon Centre before Nurse Joy could say anymore. I started to scream as I ran around the small town, "Kite! Kuro!" And the locals began to look at me oddly, but I didn't care, someone had taken my pokemon! I felt tears starting to whelm up in my eyes.

Riley bolted out of the Pokemart and came to my side, "What's happening?" His arm around my shoulders.

"S-s-someone took my p-pokemon!" I was stifling a panicked cry. Riley got a serious look on his face and than took my chin in his hand, "I'm sure they couldn't have gotten to far." He pulled out a pokeball from his belt (he must've retrieved his pokemon when he had talked to Nurse Joy) and released a Riolu from it. The Riolu looked up at Riley and he asked the little pokemon, "Ri, do you think you could pick up the auras of this girl's pokemon?" He pointed towards me and I sniffled.

"A mudkip and a Poochyena."

Riolu looked at me for a moment and than walked over and touched my calf, shutting it's eyes slowly. Riley than continue to soothe me, "Don't worry, Ri will find them." He began to stroke my red hair, pushing it away from my face. I was just beginning to calm down when Riolu made a sharp sound and than darted in the direction of the woods north of Oldale. Riley chased after the little fighting type pokemon and dragged me by my hand behind him, "Come on, Eli. Ri's got them."

I stumbled behind them and than suddenly we stopped. We were concealed by foliage but I could see that the clearing ahead of us had a small warehouse type building in the centre of it and Riley's Riolu pointed to the building, "Ri, ri, lu."

Riley let go of my hand and straightened his back, "Let me handle this."

I shook my head, "I'm coming with you." I wasn't just going to be the damsel in distress. He looked back at me and frowned, his face looking hard compared to the boy I had seen in the pokemon centre only hours ago.

"No, you don't have any pokemon with you. And I don't think you can fight with your bare hands. If they capture you, there's no way you can help."

He was right, there was nothing I could do. Chances of me making the situation worse was more likely than me helping. But that didn't mean I liked the fact one bit. I growled, "Fine." And I crossed my arms, frustrated.

"Ri, stay here and make sure Eli doesn't do anything stupid." Riley told his little pokemon and it nodded solemnly. Than he quickly darted over to the warehouse and disappeared inside.

I glared at the Riolu and after a moment sighed and sat down on the ground. I was useless. Riolu looked slightly awkward and than came and patted me on the shoulder, it was trying to comfort me, how sweet. I stroked its floppy ears and smiled, my face slightly tear stained, "Thanks… Ri."

I looked over in the direction of the warehouse and sighed. I hope Riley was ok, he still had two pokemon with him but we had no idea what type of people stole my pokemon. As I finished my thought, I saw Riley stumble out of the front door, his body crumpled as he staggered away from the entrance. He rubbed a stream of blood from the corner of his mouth, and his hat was gone too. I was about to rush to help him but Riolu was surprisingly strong and pinned me to the ground before I could get up onto my feet. "Let me go!" I commanded the fighting type pokemon but it refused too. I quickly gave up and craned my neck around so I could peer at what was happening. Two people followed after Riley and one of them was… Riley? There was two Riley's out there. What!

"Rio, olu!" Riolu exclaimed and than swiftly let me go and ran out towards the injured Riley's side, helping him to his feet. I carefully shifted my weight so I could see what was happening but so I was still hidden by the foliage. The Riley with the other person put out his hands and began to reach out towards Riolu, "Riolu, I'm your trainer, come with me and get away from that fraud." But the moment Riley got near Riolu and the injured Riley it went to bite him, growling furiously. Riolu was the aura pokemon, and if any pokemon could recognize it's trainer I believed it was Riolu. I couldn't stand by any longer, "You get away from Riley!" I stood up from my hiding place and both the second Riley and his companion looked over to me. And with this moment distraction, Riley was able to release one of his pokemon from it pokeball. Inside that pokeball was a small red lizard pokemon and as it took in it's surroundings the little flame on the end of it's tail grew brighter. The fire pokemon saw Riley laying on the ground… And looked bewildered to see its trainer also standing across from it too.

"Ri! Rio, lo!" Riolu exclaimed and the fire pokemon understood at once, and nodded it's head with resolution. It turned towards the fake Riley (I could only assume by the reaction of the pokemon) and growled, swinging it's tail back and forth making a strong whoosh sound with the flame.

"Char, use flamethrower." Riley groaned, holding his rib cage, cringing in pain. After he had uttered his command he spat a mouth full of blood out on the dirt. The Charmander listened to his trainer's command and the flame on it's tail sparked as the fire pokemon opened it's mouth. I could see that red embers were growing in the back of it's throat and in a matter of seconds the little lizard was letting loose a massive stream of coiling fire upon it's foe and I could feel waves of heat rippling from both the pokemon and the raging flames.

The second Riley received the worse of the damage and his companion was able to jump out of the heart of the flames and as the fire slowly ceased the charred body of the fraud melted down to the ground into a puddle and slowly began to reform as a blob. I was confused by what I was seeing but remembered that Riley was still injured and I ran over to him. Riolu was trying it's best to keep Riley standing but it's small body could only do so much so I quickly took over as Riley's crutch. "Are you alright?" I asked worriedly, still eyeing the foe warily.

"Yeah, nothing a little sleep won't fix." I had a feeling he was in more pain than he was admitting but I wasn't going to push. "Give the girl her pokemon back." Riley growled.

The companion of the fraud (Now turn purple blob) stumbled to his feet.

"Fine! Whatever, these weaklings aren't worth the effort." And he than tossed two pokeballs to the ground, one still with the blue sticker on it. He looked at his companion, "Come on ditto." The blob that was once Riley slid over to the man and I could almost swear I heard the odd pokemon whisper, "Failure." and the two bolted deeper into the wood. Riolu was about to go after them but Riley called the fighting pokemon off.

"No, Ri. It isn't worth it. All that is important is we got Eli's pokemon back."

Riolu looked at Riley, looking disappointed that it was letting those thieves get away. But it didn't argue. It simple went and picked my two pokeballs and brought them over to me and I gave the little Riolu a smile, "Thank you, Ri." And it looked away bashfully.

Riley was still weighing heavily on me and I looked over when he began to cough violently. When he pulled away his hand from his mouth there was a bright splash of red against his pale hand. "Oh Acreus." They must have put a real number on him.

"Eli, it's alright." His voice was beginning to trail off, "I'm fine…" His head slowly swayed back and forth and than went limp. His legs gave out and he dragged me to the ground.

He had fainted.

"Oh Acreus… Oh Acreus." I started repeating over and over as I stood up and looked down at his crumpled body. What was wrong with him? He could be dying. "Oh Acreus…" I realized that the only thing to do was try and get him back to Oldale Town, that way he could get help. But he was much bigger than I was, how was I going to get him all the way back to the town?

I had my two pokemon and I knew Riley had three on him also. I crouched beside him and found his last pokeball on his belt and than released the pokemon.

The pokemon that appeared from the ball was one that I had never seen before, it was blue and white and had a sleek appearance. It looked at me with deep intense eyes and uttered, "Latios…" It looked big enough to carry Riley. My bottom lip began to tremble and I plead to the mysterious pokemon, "Please… Please help Riley." I pointed at the boy on the ground.

When the pokemon darted to Riley's side, I noticed that it was hovering. The blue pokemon craned it's long neck back to me, "La, la, os." I could only guess at what it was telling me but I think it was telling me to help Riley onto it's back.

I slowly approached the pair and lifted Riley's limp body up, struggling to keep his weight over my shoulder. Riolu and Charmander began to help me lay Riley's body onto the back of the blue pokemon and after a few minutes we managed to have him laying securely on the pokemon's back.

I was breathing heavy and I looked at all three pokemon, "Now we have to get back to the Pokemon Centre. We can than get help for your trainer."

I stumbled through the automatic doors of the Pokemon Centre with all three of Riley's pokemon in tow, "Nurse Joy!" I screamed between breaths. She rushed from the back room and exclaimed, "Oh Acreus!"

She rushed over and checked on Riley and she than darted over to her desk and picked up the phone, "Hello! Hello, yes. We have a unconscious boy here at the Oldale Pokemon Centre. We need to transfer him to Petalburg Hospital right away, we need a Rescue Dragonite ASAP." She paused, "Thank you."

Nurse Joy took a deep breath, "The Dragonite will be here soon. We will be able to have your friend in the hospital in less than an hour."

Riley's blue pokemon floated out the door and waited with Riley on his back and his two other pokemon were at his side immediately. "Thank you Nurse Joy." I sighed with relief. And than I joined the pokemon outside.

I realized that I probably should return Riley's Riolu and Charmander to their pokeballs and I reached for Riley's belt underneath his soiled suit jacket and retrieved both of the pokemon's pokeballs. I looked at them and apologized, "I'm sorry, but you need to return to your pokeballs." Charmander looked extremely suspicious of me but Riolu assured the Charmander that it was ok. Than with two clicks, the pokemon disappeared into their balls and I returned them to Riley.

Than I was alone with Riley's mysterious pokemon, I looked at the pokemon and asked, "You're no average pokemon are you?"

It shook it's head and pointed to itself, "Latios."

"Is your name Latios than?"

It nodded. We waited in silence and eventually, I remembered my pokedex in the pocket of my dress. Pulling it out I asked, "Do you mind?" The Latios shook it's head mildly. With it's response I held the pokedex up and pressed the analyze button waiting for the data to appear for the pokemon.

Than in a electronic voice it replied, "No Data."

I couldn't help but mutter, "You _are_ a very special pokemon."

But Latios didn't have time to reply because a massive dragon pokemon landed heavily in front of us, and a nimble young women jumped down from the dragonite's back. Attached to the dragonite's belly was a large bed like carriage and she told the dragonite once she spotted Riley. "Dragonite, that's the boy." Than ever so gently the pokemon walked over to Latios and hesitantly picked the boy up and laid him in the under carriage. The young women mounted the dragon pokemon once again and was about to take off when I exclaimed, "What about me!"

The women looked at me, "Are you injured?"

"No." I replied.

"Than you have to make it to Petalburg yourself. It's only about a day's walk." Than her and her pokemon shot off into the air and were out of sight after only a minute.

I looked at Latios and than at the sky. "I guess I should start walking…" Than I began walking towards the West side of the town where it would lead to route one hundred and two and if I followed that path I'd find my way to Petalburg City. Latios grabbed my arm with it's paw and urged me to stop. "But I gotta hurry, maybe if I run, I can make it to Petalburg by sunset." I tried to pull away from the pokemon but when it refused to let me go I looked back and saw how it was pointing to itself. "What?"

It flapped it's wing like appendages and cooed and I remembered how my father used to fly home on his Pidgeot and I asked, "Can you use fly?"

The pokemon nodded. I hesitantly looked at the pokemon and than began walking around to it's side. It lowered it's hovering body and I voluted onto the back of Latios. It looked back at me and asked with a few chirps if I was ready and I simply nodded and ever so slowly, I could feel the pokemon rise from the ground and higher into the air. I tightened my grip on it's downy coat and shut my eyes. I knew flying on pokemon was one of the most efficient ways of travelling but that didn't stop me from being deathly afraid of heights. Than after a few moments of rising, I felt Latios lurch forward and wind whip my hair away from my face. I held on tighter to Latios and pretended I was still on the ground but the whistling of air by my ears didn't help fortify my fantasy. But it seemed like we had been only in the air for a minute or two when Latios began to slow down and dip downwards to the ground. Than we stopped. Slowly, I opened my eyes and looked around my surroundings and we were hovering just outside of Petalburg Pokemon Centre. Letting the tension leave my body, I let out a long sigh of relief and slid down the side of Latios. "Thank you…" I stroked the pokemon muzzle. I urged the pokemon to follow me into the Pokemon Centre and I quickly went through the automatic doors, and I turned back to see that Latios had disappeared. Than I saw a ripple in the air and it clicked in my mind. _You can turn invisible… Cool… _I walked up to the front desk to be greeted by another Nurse Joy completely identical to the nurse back in Oldale Town. "Excuse me, where's the hospital?"

The nurse gave me an odd look and than replied, "It's two buildings over from here." I nodded and reiterated, "Two buildings?"

"Two buildings."

I thanked her and headed right back out of the pokemon centre. As I was walking down the street I heard someone yell, "Eli! Is that you?" I looked around, and I all I saw was a couple of locals going about their daily business when I was literally charged by a boy with a funny white hat on. "It is you Eli! I can't believe you've already left for your pokemon journey. Getting a jump on it." The boy began to laugh loudly.

It took me a few moments to recognize this boy but than I asked, "Brendan?" Brendan was the son of Professor Birch and had journey throughout Hoenn sporadically for the past two years doing field work for his father. We never really had talked since he was two years older than me but I guess that just changed.

"Wow, maybe we can journey together now. It's great having pokemon with you but having someone that speaks your language is also nice." Brendan grinned, giddily at me and I had to resist the urge to give him a slack-jawed expression. He was so bold.

"Umm…" I didn't know quite what to say. "Sure… I guess." But than Riley returned to my mind and exclaimed, "Sorry, but I gotta get to the hospital." And I darted around Brendan. He turned around and followed me, "I'll come with." I suppressed a sigh.

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	4. The Hospital

**And we have chapter 4. I'm not very happy with this chapter, so if I could get some constructive criticism especially on this chapter, I'd be really grateful. I hope you enjoy :3**

It took a brutal hour to get the nurse to let us go into to Riley's room but it was worth the wait. Finally at eight in the evening they finally sent me through to his room. When I entered the room I saw Riley lying on the bed with Riolu and Charmander play fighting at the foot of his bed. He was laughing softly as he watched his pokemon but when I entered the room he looked up and his face turned bleak, "Hi, Eli."

I sat down in the chair right beside his bed and gave him a crooked smile, "How are you feeling?" As I settled in, Latios slowly became revisable and rested it's head on Riley's lap.

"Better, turned out I broke a rib, a minor concussion and ended up chipping a molar which cut my mouth and…" He pushed some of his black hair out of his face to reveal a long line of stitches along his hairline, "And this." I cringed slightly.

"Well, you had me worried that you were bleeding…" I pointed to my gut, "Like inside when you coughed up that blood."

Riley laughed, but it sounded almost hollow, "You underestimate me." I joined in laughing with him when Brendan bursted into the room.

"Alright, I thought I'd give you some privacy, Eli. But what the Hell is soo funny!" He pouted, "I hate missing out on a good joke." He crossed his arms.

Riley looked shocked, his grey eyes wide. "Um, who is this guy?" I couldn't blame him, a random guy showing up in your room was kind of unexpected.

"Err… Riley, this is Brendan, he's the son of regional renown Professor Birch. He lived in Littleroot town with me." Than I looked to Brendan, "This is Riley… Um…" I quickly glanced at Riley and continued, "…He's a friend from way back… Back when I lived in Sinnoh."

Brendan looked at Riley and than there was a long pause. I wasn't quite sure what was going to happen but finally Brendan muttered, "He does look kind of… Sinnoh-y… With that hair and everything."

Riley quickly retorted, "Should you be talking? I bet you have crappy hair underneath that hat!" I hadn't realized Riley was so sensitive about his hair. He crossed his arms and grumbled, "I'll have you know this hair cut is very popular…"

Brendan exclaimed, "Hey, shut up! My hair is perfectly fine! So... So piss off!" I realized it was time for me to step in.

"Really guys? Fighting about your hair? What are you, chicks?" I stepped between Riley's bed and where Brendan was standing. Both of them looked astonished that I had suggested them being chicks. The two boys looked to the ground and in a pouting tone, "No…"

"Good." I crossed my arms and sighed. "Now that's out of the way, Riley." I looked to him, "When are you being released from the hospital?"

Riley stuttered, "Err… I think… The nurse said tomorrow at the earliest… As long as I don't do any physical activities."

I felt like with Brendan being a submissive yes-man and Riley having his body and his pride crippled I had to take lead of this unofficial little troop, "OK. tomorrow morning. Are you two—" I pointed too the two boys, "—going to travel with me?"

Brendan shrugged, "Already asked if I could join you. You know I'm game." He gave me a little wink and I couldn't help but notice a little shiver travel down my spine. Turning away from my new annoying, mildly creepy, companion I looked to Riley. If Brendan was coming, I hoped that Riley would join me too.

Riley looked at me and than at Brendan and with his expression I could only imagine what Brendan was doing behind me but it obviously fortified Riley's choice, "'Course, Eli. We _did _always talk about travelling together when we were little." He gave me a large grin. And I noticed that his Charmander gave him an eye roll but it seemed like both Latios and Riolu were happy with his choice.

So that was that. It seemed like in only two days, I had managed to get my first two pokemon, have them stolen from me and have my old best friend rescue them and gained two human companions. The adventure I had been seeking while I was cooped up in my little room back in Littleroot Town had already embraced my journey in full.

Brendan began to laugh randomly and than suggested, "I guess we should introduce everyone." I was confused by his statement until he reached for his belt and drew out four pokeballs, one between each finger. "Come on out everyone!" He tossed the four pokeballs up into the air and all four cracked open revealing four very different pokemon. "Eli… Riley… I'd like to introduce you to my four companions; Lily the Froslass." The female pokemon took a soft bow and with each movement she wafted cold air "Trip my Grovyle, Rene the Gardevoir, and my last pokemon Noctowl, Noel." His last three pokemon weren't as polite has his Froslass but they didn't look mean… per say…

I noticed he had one last pokeball on his belt and I pointed and asked, "What's in that pokeball?"

Brendan frowned, "Umm… That's my newest pokemon… She isn't quite… ready to be released from her pokeball outside of a training session… She's stubborn and sometimes… Can be… violent…"

"Oh." I was extremely curious on what kind of pokemon he had, but didn't push the situation. I heard Riley sigh from behind my back, if I didn't know better, I would have thought Riley was feeling jealous of Brendan.

He cleared his throat and pointed and named off his pokemon, "This is Ri, my Riolu. The Charmander is named Char and this pokemon here—" He pointed to Latios, "Is Lustre." Brendan eyed the white and blue pokemon and asked, "What region is your pokemon from? I've never seen it before…"

Riley scowled at him, "Does it matter?" It was obvious he didn't want to talk about it. Once again, the mystery peaked my interest. But I remembered I had to introduce my own pokemon when both boys' eyes laid on me, I took my two pokeballs from my bag and clicked the button the centre of each one, releasing my little Mudkip and Poochyena, "The Poochyena is named Kuro." Kuro gave Brendan a cold glare and than trotted to my side and sat down. I laughed meekly and continued, "And the Mudkip is named Kite." Before I even noticed, Trip, the Grovyle had approach Kite and gave her a quick lick on the cheek. I wasn't quite sure if he was just showing random affection or if he was tasting my Mudkip. "Um…" I uttered without thinking. Kite shivered after Trip had finished drawing a long tongue stroke up the side of her face and she looked around almost confused and than cried, "Muuuuuddkippp!" And darted between my legs and hid. Cover her face while chanting her name repetitively. I scratched the back of my head and began to laugh softly, trying to make light of the odd situation. But Trip didn't think the situation was funny at all and returned to his trainer's side with his head hanging. I guess it was affection… Rejected affection but affection nonetheless.

Riley chimed in, "Well that was weird." But before the conversation could proceed any further a nurse came in and she looked a tiny bit off-put by the room being filled with pokemon but she quickly collected herself and said, "Visiting time is over, if the guests and their…" She scowled for a moment but quickly replaced it with a phoney smile, "Pokemon could leave immediately…" She trailed off and I nodded.

"Umm sure thing. Riley, I'll be staying at the pokemon centre. See you tomorrow morning." I waved goodbye and left the room, Brendan and all of our pokemon in tow.

It was pretty dark out when we finally left the hospital, but luckily the rural roads were lit up nicely by out of season christmas lights wrapped around the branches of the trees framing the paths. I guess small towns don't have the money to build street lamps. Brendan walked a couple paces ahead of me and we hadn't spoken once. He had returned all of his pokemon to their balls except for his Froslass and she drifted solemnly at his side her yukata like body swaying eerily in the poor light. The silence was unnerving and I looked to my two pokemon for comfort but Kite seemed more scared of the dark shadows in the surrounding wood than anything and Kuro was busy following a smell. Aren't they the greatest? I called out, dying to find companionship, "Brendan, so what have you been up to the last couple years?"

He looked back at me and grinned, "Travelling Hoenn, meeting pokemon and I've been really getting into Pokemon contests recently." Pokemon contests… Reminded me of a question I was yet to ask myself. Was I going to challenge gym leaders and go for the pokemon league or compete in pokemon contests and than preform in the Grand Festival? I guess I could try and do both. I've heard stories of trainers doing both and a lot of the time their better for it. "Pokemon contests, huh?" I looked at his Froslass and I assumed she was probably one of his lead pokemon for contests.

Froslass chimed, "Frosla!" She twirled and span, the air sparkling a tiny bit around her. Brendan laughed and patted her on the head, "Lily sure does love competing in them, so does Rene." He paused and I could see him slowly reach for one of the pokeballs on his belt and his index finger stroked it and I recognized it as the one pokemon he hadn't been willing to show us in the hospital.

"Hey, what is your last pokemon?" I couldn't help but ask. He said that this pokemon in particular could be violent at times and that only peeked my curiosity even more. We had stopped moving down the path and I took this as a chance to catch up and stand beside Brendan. There was a long moment of silence and I thought he was going to dismiss my question and not even answer it. But finally he said, "The pokemon is a Milotic." I had never seen a Milotic in real life, only in photos but I had heard they were one of the most beautiful pokemon in all of the regions and the boy standing beside me was an owner of one. My eyes opened slightly and I exclaimed, "Aren't they super rare?" I felt a burst of excitement rush through me. Brendan nodded, "I received her as a Feebas from this girl I met at a contest. She was one of those spoiled rich kids and she had wanted a Milotic so much but her parents got her Feebas and told her if she wanted one so bad she had to evolve it." He took a deep breath and than let it out in a sigh, "I walked in on her trying to train her Feebas and well… It slapped her in the face with its tail accidentally and she began to beat it, screaming at it to evolve already. And I stopped her." He began to laugh meekly, trying to make light of the story, "She got so angry at me and told me I could take 'the whore-ugly pokemon' and that she didn't want it anymore and I took it. I adopted the pokemon first out of pity but I grew to love it and before I realized, the Feebas evolved into Milotic." It was a heartwarming story. I was glad that Brendan saved the pokemon from that girl but it reminded me that a lot of serious pokemon trainers (In Contests and League) are very cruel to their pokemon, and that tough 'love' was what made their pokemon so vicious in battle. I just sometimes forget that since my parents sheltered me a lot as a child (Since they both treated their pokemon with love and respect) and I only really understood that pokemon cruelty was a real thing when I had watched a documentary about the going ons behind the scenes of the main Contest Circuit a couple years ago. I pulled out of thought and said, "But… She still…" I looked for the word.

"Scarred?" Brendan filled in for me, "Yeah. She doesn't mean… To hurt people… She's just scared." He never mentioned that she had hurt people before, just that she could get violent.

"Umm…" I wanted to ask but I didn't know how too.

But he understood instantly, "It was in a contest. I thought she was ready…" I nodded, and I noticed that the sky was now pitch black, it was getting late. I pulled his hand to urge him to walk and than pushed for him to continue. "So I had trained her as a Feebas and her movements were sharp and clean and I was going to use her in my next contest but than she evolved. Her new form just made her more beautiful and I had a feeling I would have no problem winning this contest." He rubbed his hands together, stroking the crook between his thumb and index finger, "But when I released her on the stage and she saw all those people… She just lost it…" He slipped the hand he had been rubbing from its fingerless glove and showed me his palm, in the dim light I could barely make out what he was showing me but when I reached out and felt the skin it was bumpy and ridged. I pulled away and he continued, "Four people were severely injured and another twenty contracted minor injuries… She was just blind with fear and she accidentally hurt me when I tried to calm her down… Luckily someone had a Wigglytuff with them and was able to use sing to put her to sleep." He sighed, "Now I'm scared to even let her out of her pokeball with other people around…"

Even though his story about the violence of his Milotic, I still wished to see her. "Brendan… Do you think… I could see her?"

He looked slightly shocked at me, he was probably thinking why did I still want to see his Milotic if she could kill me but for some reason it didn't scare me. He rubbed his forehead, "Umm… Tomorrow…"

I wondered if he was actually going to show me tomorrow or if he was just putting it off, hoping I would somehow forget. I nodded and our walk returned the previous silent state. Finally, we reached the pokemon centre, its lit up windows shining out into the dark wooded surroundings looking much like a beacon. We entered the building and as if on cue, my mudkip and poochyena let out a long yawn. They were both very young pokemon and they had been through a lot for just one day. I pulled out their pokeballs and called them back and looked to Brendan, "Its pretty late…" I glanced at the jigglypuff clock sitting on the front desk and shifted my weight, "I'm going to get a room and sleep… Um, night." I gave him an unsure wave and than headed to ring the bell on the front desk. Reaching the front desk I noticed that they didn't have a little metal bell like the Oldale pokemon centre but a small red button and underneath read, 'Service button'. I pressed it and in a few minutes a tired Nurse Joy emerged from the back, her pale pink hair in rollers and a baby blue robe wrapped around her shoulders, yawning she asked, "What can I help you with?" She gave me a weary look.

"Umm… I was wondering if I could get a room for tonight?" She nodded, rubbing her eyes and she noticed Brendan standing a few feet behind me.

"Is he with you?" I paused but Brendan replied before I had a chance too. "Yeah."

Stretching, Nurse Joy reached under her desk and pulled out a single key card and than handed it to me and left as quickly as she came. I called, "B-but Nurse Joy!" But she was already gone. I looked at the one key card and than to Brendan. I guess we'd be sharing a room.

As we entered the room, I was horrified to see that there was only one twin bed in the whole room and I began stuttering, "Err… A-ah… W-well." Brendan walked past me and tossed his backpack down beside the small couch and sat down, "I'll take the couch, don't worry." And it seemed like the second he laid down on the couch he was out.

I looked around the room and sighed. I guess I should get ready for bed.

**Can you guess what I'm going to say? ... Review please :3**


	5. Finally

**Sorry for the long delay :( But finally chapter five is up xD and sorry it's on the shorter side of the stick but nevertheless. I hope you enjoy! **

**EDITED: If you have a cannon character make an appearance, drop a review or pm :D**

I had never slept so good in my life. I awoke when rays of morning light shone through the open window and I could hear the song of Swellow outside in the trees. I stretched my limbs out and rubbed my eyes and than rolled out of bed, my short plaid shorts pulled up a tiny bit to high. I saw that Brendan was still snoring asleep on the couch and that reminded me to pull my shorts to a more concealing height, I wasn't alone like I usually am in the morning. I walked over to the small bathroom off to the right of the room and began preparing for the day. I didn't really bother making my hair look decent since I was covering it with a bandana anyway. After taking a quick shower, I went into my room to retrieve my clothing and I was confronted with a half dressed Brendan, I spun around on my heels and blushed, "Oh gosh, sorry! Sorry!" But than I realized that I was only clad in a towel myself and I darted back into the bathroom and called out, "Ahh, could you throw me my bag?"

I could hear that he was a tiny bit flustered but after a moment he replied, "Err, sure." I could hear some fabric shifting around in the room and than I saw Brendan's arm peak around the frame of the door, my green bag hanging from his hand.

"Thanks."

"No prob…" He's voice seemed slightly strained but I quickly dismissed it. I let the towel fall down onto the tile floor and began changing at swift speeds, feeling like at any moment Brendan would traipse into the bathroom expecting me to already done changing. But luckily that didn't happen and I was able to leave the bathroom before any traipsing was done. I peeked through a crack in the door and called out, "Are you done changing?" I waited for a moment and listened for any movements. But thankfully, Brendan replied, "All clear." I sighed with relief.

Timidly, I left the bathroom and found Brendan sitting on the couch, his head leaning back on the edge of the couch I could hear him grumble, "I fucking hate mornings." He brought up his glove cladded hand and rubbed his brow while complaining.

I wasn't exactly a morning person but Brendan brought it too a whole new level. I frowned, and sauntered over to the edge of the couch. I roughly picked up his bag that had been precariously placed on the arm of the sofa and proceeded to throw it at the black haired boy, "Get up, we gotta get over to the hospital."

I waited there for a moment staring him down until he moaned and shifted on the couch, "Fine…" He scooted forward on the cushion and than stumbled onto his long lanky legs and he brushed past me, his shoulders hunched and his hands in his pockets. My head followed him as he grumpily sauntered to the door of the room, and I began to follow behind him after briefly looking back into the room to check if any belongings had been left behind.

I jogged to catch up to Brendan and I looked up to see the dark shadows creasing his face and the dull, glazed look in his eyes. I walked beside him for a moment, feeling an awkward silence fall over us. I fiddled with my bag, trying to get it to sit comfortably on my hip before I hesitantly looked over to Brendan and asked, "Did you sleep well?"

We came into the main lobby area, and I heard Brendan sigh audibly, but he didn't reply. I puckered my lips out and mouthed to myself in a mocking matter, "Fine, be that way."

It was fairly early in the morning and the only people mingling around were a few rangers there on business but other than that it seemed pretty empty. Brendan stumbled over to one of the lounging areas and plopped down on one of the couches, and shut his sleepy burgundy eyes. I frowned at him and put my hands on my hips, "What do you think you're doing?"

"Preparing for the long day ahead of me." He replied without looking at me. I crossed my arms and narrowed my eyes at him. The little voice inside my head had said that travelling with him would be a bad idea… But its not to late yet… The voice who claimed to be my conscious continued, I could probably just walk away right now and he probably wouldn't even notice.

I stood there for a few more minutes, watching Brendan's chest fall up and down underneath of his red jacket before I finally convinced myself to leave. I turned my back on Brendan and began heading towards the door when I heard heavy footsteps following behind me and a drowsy drawl saying, "Where do you think _you're _going?" I knew it was Brendan without even looking back, I turned my chin up and continued walking, "I'm going to go see how Riley's doing." The automatic doors of the Pokemon centre opened up as I walked out. The air was fresh and there was still dew covering all the grass. I took in a deep breath, enjoying the early morning weather, the sun just peaking over the horizon and the whistle of a bird pokemon's song in the distance, but the momentary bliss was interrupted by Brendan, "Why do you have to go so damn early?"

I reached into my bag and pulled out my two pokeballs and let out Kuro and Kite and looked back at the grouchy Brendan and replied, "Because, I'd like to get a move on, if we're going to get anywhere before sunset we got to leave early." I stopped walking and waited for Brendan to catch up. I felt a cold little paw press against my leg and I saw Kite whimpering at my foot, sighing, I bent down and put out my arm so my little water pokemon could hitch a ride on my shoulder. Brendan walked past me and asked casually, "Have you battled that mudkip much?" He had his hands in his pockets and I frowned, feeling a tiny bit defensive.

"Why?" I asked, my voice a tiny bit strained. To be perfectly honest, I hadn't battled my mudkip once since I caught Kuro.

I began walking again, lengthening my stride so I could keep up with the now lively Brendan, "It just seemed a tiny bit pampered. And… Well, baby like…"

My brow furrowed and I quickened my pace so I could pass him. He had no right to insult my pokemon. Kite was perfectly fine, she was fine. She was… She is baby-like. I felt a twinge in my stomach, realizing how right he was. I had been on my pokemon journey for almost a week and I've never once looked at training my pokemon. Even Kuro, as a wild pokemon was just a baby. His fur soft and downy and small meek body. I snorted in defiance, "Whatever, let's just go pick up Riley."

The hospital was quiet, but than again, Petalburg was a small town. The automatic doors slid open as I sauntered into the lobby. The front desk was manned by a male nurse and he looked as bored as I've ever seen anyone be before. He was twiddling a pen in between his fingers and as both Brendan and I approached the front desk he didn't even look up until I coughed, trying to grab his attention. He looked up and gave me a warm smile, "Hello, may I help you?" It was refreshing to see someone so chipper but I suppose any interaction was invigorating during a boring shift like this. "I was wondering if Riley Noraa is ready to be released?" I asked, returning the man's polite upbeat tone.

"Well, let me check…" He shifted and rolled in his spiny chair so he faced a prehistoric looking computer and began typing wildly into the keyboard. A few painful moments of listening to the computer wheeze and sputter he turned back to me and replied, "It seems like we can release him, would you like to go up to his room?" I nodded and began following the nurse as he left his desk to guide me through the hospital. Apparently, leaving the front desk unattended was no biggie.

The nurse quickly left once he had shown Brendan and I to Riley's room. I probably could have found my way there by myself (since the place was actually quite small) but I figured I wouldn't say anything. Riley was fast asleep, and I couldn't help but notice the bed-head he was rocking. I snickered quietly to myself as I walked over to wake him, but Ri, who was napping soundly in the crook of the boy's arm woke before I had the chance to give Riley a good nudge. The drowsy pokemon looked up at me with hazy eyes and murmured it's name a few times and I gave it a warm smirk and whispered, "Morning." The pokemon stood up from it's nest of a sort and stretch out and began poking at its trainer's face with it's tail.

At first Riley simply tried to turn away from the tail batting at his face but eventually a loud sneeze brought him into awareness. "I'm up!" He exclaimed as he sat up from his laying position. He looked around the room, gathering his surroundings until his eyes laid on me. "Oh! Eli! You're here!" He patted his head and realized that he looked like a mad scientist who had just came face to face with a lightning bolt, he frantically threw his hand to the night table in search of his hat and quickly found it and placed it on top of his head, embarrassed of his wild hair.

Brendan rolled his eyes, whilst crossing his arms. "Kay, you're awake. Get ready. Eli said she wanted to get an early start so we can actually get somewhere today." He sounded impatient and bitter. I wanted to tell him to just to lay off but I bit my tongue, realizing it was exactly what I had said to him only minutes before hand. But Riley could take his time waking up, he had just been injured and… everything… Dammit, I'm so bias…

I looked to Riley and smiled sweetly, "Yeah, so don't rush, but I'd like to get going as soon as possible."

The black haired boy yawned and than blinked a few times. Than suddenly seemed to allow the words to click in his head, "Oh! Okay… Well…" He looked down at his bed sheets looking slightly embarrassed.

"What's up, Riley?" I asked, feeling like he had no reason to be embarrassed.

Brendan chimed in, being condescending once again. "He wants you to skittle-dattle, he doesn't want no peekin' while he's changin'. Those hospital robes are quite breezy I've heard."

Riley's face changed to new shades of red and began to sputter like a broken sprinkler but I simply put up my hands, "Fine, fine. I'll leave, just meet me down in the lobby…" I paused, "And please be fast…" I felt as though, I better add that… Might as well make it today's motif.

The lobby appeared to be completely empty, and as I hesitantly walked into the room the rough arm chairs placed around the edge began looking more and more alluring. I looked up at the plain looking clock on the wall and it read ten to nine, I might as well take a seat instead of standing around like an awkward wailmer. With Brendan helping Riley collect everything from the room, it shouldn't take too long at all, I thought to myself as I rested my elbow on the arm of the chair. Once we start travelling I'd better start training my pokemon and before I know it Kite will be a big strong Swampert and than I can laugh at Brendan and say, 'Baby-like you say?' That's going to be sweet….

"Kay… I'm sick of waiting…" Am I hearing voices…. "Eli!"

I fluttered my eyes open, being startled by the sudden noise in the previously silent lobby. Irritated at having my thoughts interrupted, I growled, "What?" My vision was hazy but as I began to focus I realized that Brendan's face was a few inches from mine.

"Sleeping Beauty is awake…" I continued to blink rapidly, trying to comprehend what was happening, "Well… Not so much of a beauty… But…" Still confused I could hear Riley's voice murmur quietly, "Don't say that…."

The words finally connected in my head and I angrily took my hand and pushed Brendan's face away from mine, "Get out of my face." And I stumbled onto my feet.

Riley was sitting in one of the chairs across from mine and Brendan stood, looking a little distraught at being pushed aside. They sure did pack quickly, I thought. My eyes drifted up to look at the clock and what I saw was not what I had expected. Rather than it simply being nine o'clock, it was more like… QUARTER TO TEN? That couldn't be right, I had only been sitting here for like… Ten minutes… Not even. I looked to both of my companions and tried to form some coherent question but it just came out as a, "Ehhhhh…?"

I could see Riley looked a tiny bit embarrassed, and he bashfully reached up and scratched the back of his head saying, "When me and Brendan came down from the room you were fast asleep and I thought if you were that tired we could wait a bit before setting out."

Oh, dammit, that's so thoughtful! But… God, Riley's such a nice guy but now we won't even make it to Petalburg Woods by nightfall! I sputtered, conflicted on whether I should swoon at his kindness or freak out because we're behind schedule. "Well… Ah… We…"

Brendan put his hands in his pocket and sighed, "So are we leaving now, or what?"

I looked at the grumpy Brendan and than to the ever so kind Riley, and I tried my best to collect my wits and answered, "Yeah, let's go."

After passing the front desk and signing Riley out we were on the road. It had never really crossed my mind that I would be travelling with someone, let alone two people when I first started my journey, but here I was. Even though I had technically started my journey almost a week before, it felt like this was my first real steps as a pokemon trainer. With Kite on my shoulder, Kuro walking by my side, and my two companions in tow, the real adventure is just beginning.

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	6. A Hoenn Short 1

**A Hoenn Short :3**

**This is just a veeeery short little shorty short... It really has nothing to do with the overall plot arch (... There's a plot arch o.0?) But I wanted to write some more about the bad stuff going down in Hoenn... So ELI GETS TO BE A VICTIM AGAIN! YAY! (I'm sorry, I really hate how this is developing into a 'Damsel in distress, Prince Charming saves the day' type of story. I promise, I'll try to fix it D: and make Eli less... Helpless...)**

"I'm going back to that stream we past just a few minutes back." I called back to my companions who were setting up camp with their pokemon. I felt grimy and gross after a long day of trekking on a narrow, unbeaten dirt path, I could just feel my clothing clinging to me. As I reached the stream I had seen on our way to the clearing where we're camping, I felt a twinge of excitement rush through me. Even before I had made it all the way to the river bed I began stripping off my clothes, first my shoes and than my top and than with a few hops and skips, my leggings. The ground was rocky on either side of the river but I didn't mind the pointy stones because I knew after I got past them, I'd be greeted by icy cold water (which would be especially refreshing on a hot evening like this). As my toes touched the surface I let a little squee of shock mixed with pleasure. I began to venture deeper into the stream and by the time I had reached the deepest area it reached about mid-thigh. Deciding to take the plunge, I sat down and than the water reached up to my collar bone, giving my core a good shake.

As I sat there enjoying the fresh water, it came to my realization that Kite would love to join me, I reluctantly crawled over to riverbank and reached for where I threw my bag. I quickly snatched up the mudkip's pokeball and opened it with a click. At first my mudkip looked a bit daze but soon saw my face and perked up. I picked it up, cradling it against my soft chest, "Want to go for a swim?" and she replied with a few happy 'kips'. I quickly returned to the deeper part of the river and once I had reached it, I let Kite swim around as she pleased. She just looked so elated it was beginning to make me smile too! But I was quickly distracted when I heard a rustle in the woods not to far from here. I know it could just be a pokemon, but my father's cautious tales kept ringing up in my head. Mudkip could see that I was worried about something and pressed her tiny paw up against my arm and muttered her name with concern.

I whispered to the small water type, "I think someone may be over there…" I gently pushed my jawline in the direction of the sound I heard earlier. Mudkip looked worried for a moment, backing away from where I pointed too but when she looked up at me, and it seemed like something clicked in her head and she puffed out her chest and darted from the river in the direction of the sound, her eyes squeezed shut and a meek battle cry coming from her large mouth.

As she charged the bush where the sound was coming from, I heard a distinct grunt and than a guy with a camera stumbled from out behind the bush. "What the fuck?" He growled as mudkip ran at him, screaming and squealing. I fell back into the water and instinctively covered my breasts, "KITE! Use a water gun!"

The small water pokemon shot water at the man and the man began cursing and swearing and he than took his boot and kicked Kite a good few feet away from him. "KITE!" I screamed, I looked from my beaten pokemon and snarled viciously at the man, "You bastard!" I wanted to go over there and fight him myself, but currently being completely naked I didn't know what to do. I sat there looking at the strange man my eyes wild as I tried to think of a plan, but after a few moments he began to approach me and I started to panic. I shuffled back as he came close but I didn't want to leave the water in fear of exposing my body. What to do…? What can I do….? As he reached the edge of the riverbank I looked back and than began to scream, "HELP!"

The man yelled at me, "Shut the fuck up!"

I stuttered but quickly resorted to doing something that I do best, back talking him, "I'm not scared of you!" Lie. "Just you wait… My… Boyfriend is only a few meters away and he'll come and kick your ass!" Mostly lies… "He's a super strong trainer!" And almost on cue, Riley came down the path and called, sounding concern, "Eli, what's wrong?"

I looked back and I could see the horror appear on his face, "HEY! Buddy, back away from the girl!" As he approached the scene I saw him reach back to his belt for one of his pokemon but he stopped there, waiting to see what the man would do.

The man began to laugh, "Is this the boyfriend you were talking about, this scrawny runt going to beat me up?" His laughter grew into hysteria quickly and he seemed like he had just heard the funniest joke that anyone has ever spoke.

Riley face darkened and he pulled out the second pokeball from his belt and released his Charmander. When the little lizard pokemon had emerged from its pokeball, it looked confused at its trainer waiting for his command.

Riley reached forward and clenched the air, "Char use Incinerate on that man!"

The fire pokemon, now having its orders turned back to its target and fell down onto all fours and began gathering fire from deep within its stomach into its throat and than shot a ball of fire at the man, exploding on contact. The man screamed as small embers touched his skin and in between his cries, he began to back away and growl, "Fine! I didn't want the bitch anyways!" And he ran off into the woods, camera in hand.

I ran over to Kite who was still unconscious on the ground and picked her up in my arms. I held her close and I could feel her body rise and fall with breath and her little body pulsing. I sighed with relief. Thank Arceus…

Riley looked out of breath, and extremely shocked that the man had just run off but as he gathered his wits, he dashed to my side. Gently, he put his arm around me even though I was still wet form the water and asked, frantic in his manner, "Eli! Are you alright?"I nodded, cradling my pokemon. Now that the incident was over, I couldn't help but think of what could have happened if Riley hadn't come in time. And it actually brought tears to my eyes, it could have been… Horrible… I tucked my head against Riley's shoulder and bit my lip stifling my cry. I didn't want to seem so upset since nothing actually happened but… I let a few tears stream down my face. Riley hesitantly comforted me, I could feel how tense his body was and I was warmed at how bashful he was but than I realized why, even before he began to stutter, "Umm… Eli, could… Errr…" I brought my head up to see his face which had become a deep red colour and I could see his dark eyes struggling to look away from me.

I pulled away from him, trying to cover my body with my arms whilst carrying mudkip. "Oh! Gosh, umm…" I could feel my face heating up also.

Riley tried his hardest to not look at me and began stutter as he stood up, "I'm just going to wait by the path while you get dressed… I'll wait for you…" I nodded and once he had his back turned to me as he waited by the entrance of the path, I quickly went for my cloths and dressed faster than I have ever dressed before.

**To think, when I first started writing this, I tried to make it a funny short... Guess that didn't work out...**

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	7. New Pokemon and A New City

**Sorry about the shortness of the chapter again. I've been at my grandparents and haven't had the same amount of time devoted to writing this fic... Or even a proper word processor... So I'm also sorry if there's more mistakes than usual, I tried my best .!**

"Kuro use bite! Kite jump to the right and use a water gun attack!" I watched as my pokemon fought with one another and I felt pleased to see how quickly they picked up on my commands. I watched and I tried to call out for Kuro to dodge the stream of water but Kite was too fast and Kuro took a direct hit in the side, throwing the small dog pokemon across the clearing. I looked at mudkip and than to poochyena and gave both a warm smirk, "Good work! You guys ready for a lunch break?" Kuro stumbled onto his feet and than shook out his dark coat and Kite proceeded to run over to me screaming her name with excitement. I searched in my bag and pulled out a container of pokefood. When I twisted the container lid off, I realized that I was running low on supplies. I hoped we got out of Petalburg Woods soon or I might have to improvise with what I'm going to be feeding my pokemon. I kneeled down on the grass and let my two pokemon come and help themselves to the container of food. Just across the clearing my two companions went about their own business, Brendan busily working away on his Pokenav and Riley reading a book on advance pokemon training techniques. I walked over in their direction and turned my attention to Brendan, putting my hands on my hips, "So do you have an idea on the quickest way to get through this woods?"

Brendan looked up casually from his Pokenav, "What do you think I'm doing?… This part of Hoenn is really poorly mapped because no one ever comes out this way…" I narrowed my eyes and resisted the urge to call him out for just making excuses, he'd been travelling for… How long now? and he didn't know his way around here? I bit my lip and waited as he clicked a few buttons on the small device, "But I think if we just head north of this spot we'll be able to make it to Rustboro by six tonight." He looked up at me and raised an eyebrow. I was silent for a moment but Riley chimed in without looking up from his book, "Sounds good, shall we get going than?"

I looked at both boys and than crossed my arms, "Okay. I'll just go get my pokemon ready to go…" I turned away from them and that my pokemon weren't alone with their meal. I walked over to get a closer look and it looked like Kuro and Kite were enveloped in some sort of conversation with a mushroom like pokemon. I stayed a few feet away from the group and pulled out my pokedex to check who exactly this pokemon was.

I held up the device and clicked the analyze button and it began reading out in a electronic voice, "Shroomish. Shroomish live in damp soil in the dark depths of forests. They are often found keeping still under fallen leaves. This Pokémon feeds on compost that is made up of fallen, rotted leaves. If this pokemon senses danger, it shakes its body and scatters spores from the top of its head. This Pokémon's spores are so toxic, they make trees and weeds wilt."

I looked up from the pokedex image and at the small pokemon enjoying lunch with Kuro and Kite and couldn't believe that a cute pokemon like that could be toxic. As I was standing there watching the pokemon eat, Kite noticed me first and squee'd at me and seemed excited about the little Shroomish that had joined them, but the little grass pokemon didn't seem as excited as Kite had been to see me and began backing away from the food container muttering to itself. Kuro made a few woof sounds as the shroomish left but I quickly said, "You don't have to leave, help yourself." I gave the pokemon a little smile and it seemed to be less worried about my presence.

I sat down with the pokemon and just watched as they interacted with one another but the weird part was I swear that Kuro and Kite were talking about me while I sat right in front of them. I heard two pair of footsteps behind me and I glanced back to see Riley and Brendan standing right behind me.

"Are we leaving or what?" I heard Brendan grumble.

I looked back and frowned at him, "Just give me a second, Brendan!" The shrooomish looked worriedly at me and I gave Brendan a, 'shut the fuck up.' look and turned to the little grass pokemon and it seemed upset about something. I than asked, "Shroomish… Would you like to come with us?"

The grass pokemon looked away from me and seemed embarrassed, but Kuro began nudging the shroomish with his nose and eventually the pokemon nodded in my direction.

Grinning, I reached back into my bag and pulled out a pokeball. Holding it out to Shroomish, it took its forehead and tapped the button on the spherical device and than disappeared with a flash of red light into the pokeball, the ball vibrated a few times in my hand before growing still. That had been surprisingly...easy...

Grabbing the food container and quickly tucking it in my bag, I gave a cocky smirk to my companions, "Who's a pokemon master?"

Brendan scoffed and began walking away, "Certainly not you…"

I literally had to pick my jaw off the ground with how flabbergasted I was, I looked at Riley and pointed at Brendan's back as he walked away and Riley simply gave a shrug, a bashful smile and than followed after Brendan. I stood there for a moment, trying to gather my thoughts before I finally recovered. I gestured for my two pokemon to follow me and proceeded to chase after the two boys. To be perfectly honest, it wasn't the actual mean comment (…comments…) that had thrown me off but the fact that Brendan had changed complete from when I first met him a few days ago. He was so bubbly, and chipper, even if it was a bit over the top but he was still friendly! Now he's just grumpy and sarcastic… I don't even… … Boys always complain about how girls don't make sense…. But they're just as bad! Hypocrites…

It was an especially hot day today, even with the sun sinking into the horizon, I could still feel my body cry out in protest at moving in the heat. I dragged behind my two male companions, but I could see that the heat was getting to them as well since over the past hour they had been loosing pieces of clothing. Brendan had taken off his vest and sweater and Riley had his suit jacket resting in the crook of his arm and I heard Riley complain, "It never got this hot in Sinnoh."

Kuro didn't seemed to phased by the weather as he trotted by my side, besides the panting but he always panted. Lucky dog, I thought bitterly. The path we had been following all afternoon had seemed to being going up hill for hours now (although in reality it had probably been only a half an hour now) but finally I snapped and asked, the irritation in my voice noticeable, "Are you sure this is the right way?"

Brendan didn't look back, his attention fully devoted to his little device but as he reached what appeared to be the peak of the hill we had been travelling up he stopped and turned back to reply to me, the first sincre grin I had seen in a couple days present on his lips, "Get up here and take a look for yourself."

Riley had reached the peak of the hill before me and I could hear a sigh of relief escape from his lips and that only pushed me to get to the top quickly. I picked up my pace and than stepped up to stand in between the two boys to catch view of a beautifully lit city, bustling with life and over the horizon I could see the sparkling of the ocean and to the left the beginnings of a mountain range. I hadn't visited a large city like this since I had lived in Sinnoh but even than, only Jubilife City. I gasped and exclaimed, "We made it!" And I rocketed down the hill, racing towards the city, "I'm going to have an ice shower when I get to the pokemon center!" I yelled with excitement and Kuro howled as he ran by my side.

"Mudkip!" Kite cried out as she tried her best to keep on my shoulder but I was too excited to slow up. We had finally made it to Rustboro City!

I was out of breath when we had finally made it to the pokemon center but I was estatic. I could hear Riley and Brendan panted behind me and I caught whispers of, "I thought she was tired." and "I didn't know she could run that fast."

I marched up to the front counter and exclaimed (a tad bit to loud, might I add), "Could I _please_ get a room?" I had a few heads turn my way but I dismissed it quickly. The Nurse Joy stationed here looked a tiny bit thrown back at my forwardness but she simply replied, stuttering, "We're a-a b-bit over booked, if you don't mind, you three can share a room with someone." I slammed my hand down on the counter, overdramatizing the situation, "It doesn't matter. Just hand over the keys." She nodded, and I wasn't sure if she was a tiny bit upset over my rudness or still shocked over my forwardness. I waited there, tapping my foot and when she returned I snapped up the keys and booked it towards the rooms calling after Riley and Brendan, "Come on, don't be so slow!"

Excitement was rushing through me, I was just so excited to have a shower and sleep in a bed tonight. I guess when you had to camp out in the wilderness with nothing but a sleeping bag and just what you need to get by, you became really grateful for when you had some luxuries. I came up to the door for the room where we'd be staying that night and frantically began unlocking, my hyper energy winding up my two pokemon and they were jumping up and down and all around.

Brendan called from the end of the hall, Riley walking beside him, "Hey, the room isn't going anywhere, you maniac!"

I waved him off and than unlocked the door and bursted in to only be greeted by a half-naked girl only wrapped in a towel. As quickly as I had opened the door, I shut it and exclaimed, "Oh Arceus!" I yelped, "Sorry, I'm so sorry!"

Riley and Brendan had finally caught up with me and Riley asked, slightly concerned, "What happened?"

My face was red with embarrasement and I began stuttering, "W-well, err.. T-there was... Ummm..." I pointed at the door but slowly it opened behind me and a girl with auburn hair poked her head out and said, her voice a tiny bit strained, "I didn't know I'd be sharing a room... I'm sorry..."

I jumped and flipped around and began apologizing myself, "No, it was my fault for walking in without knocking, Nurse Joy had said I would be sharing a room with someone..."

The girl shook her head, "No, its my fault..."

I was about to insist that she shouldn't blame herself when Brendan pushed past me, groaning, "Kay, you're both sorry. Yippie, now lets get out of the hallway..."

He pulled the door open and traipsed in. Thankfully the girl was fully dressed now in a baggy pair of pale pink pajamas, I followed in after Brendan and smiled sheepishly at the girl and set my stuff down by the door.

"My name is Eli." I offered my hand to the girl. She appeared to be around my age but very slim and petite.

She took my hand and gave it a gentle shake, "Coriander."

I than looked back and gestured to the two boys as they began to settle into the room, "And this is Riley and Brendan. We're all travelling together."

Coriander gave the two boys a gentle smile and a little wave. She seemed nice enough, although a bit... Mild natured. I continued the conversation, "I take it you're a trainer?"

She shrugged, "Yeah, but I'm not really trying to win gym battles or anything... I'm just travelling with my Arcanine..." She laughed.

I smiled, "I'm just starting my journey..."

Coriander nodded, I assumed that she's been travelling for quite a bit longer than I have since not many new trainers have pokemon like Arcanine. She looked at my companions and asked them, "How about you two?"

Riley had already released his Riolu from its pokeball and was currently grooming the small pokemon, "I've been training my pokemon back in Canalave city for about a year now, but I've never really travelled anywhere until recently when I came to Hoenn to visit Eli."

Coriander chimed in, her voice perky, "Is she your girlfriend?"

I looked to Riley frantically and he looked at me with the same sort of urgency and we both exclaimed, "No! Just friends!"

The aurburn haired girl giggled with amusement at our reply, but Brendan's broke in and answered, "I've been travelling for four years now. I've competed in contests and the league but mainly I've been helping my dad with his research..." He listed his accomplishments like they were nothing but in reality he was the most experienced trainer here, than again he was a couple years older than us.

Coriander gave all three of us a pleasant look, "It must be nice to travel with friends."

I shrugged, and eyed Brendan, "It's not all ice cream and lollipops..."

**For those who haven't had their oc written in yet, no worries! I have a plan and they'll be showing their pretty little faces soon :D**

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter, if you did. PLEASE REVIEW :D**


	8. A Rival

**I'm back home! Thank god! Haha, I hope you enjoy this newest chapter. Again, on the shorter side, but it felt like a natural break so I made it xD **

The evening had gone in a flash and Coriander had a few good stories to tell. It turns out that she is mainly travelling the regions to help people out. She was like a... Super hero or something... Minus the powers... And minus the spandex... But still, she appeared to be a good-hearted person. She left before any of us even woke up in the morning but she left a note on the desk saying goodbye and listing all her contact information, cool! I've made my first friend travelling. It was about ten before we left the centre but Brendan suggested we go check out the gym since both me and Riley were interested in challenging it. It was another sweltering day and I thought inwardly about how I miss the cool forest back in Newleaf. Now walking about Rustboro, I see that majority of the buildings in the city were made of stone and even the streets were cobbled. Brendan led the way through the crowded streets of downtown Rustboro, and as we walked he explained that the gym was in a quieter part of the town beside the local school.  
I was half listening as Brendan rambled on about this and that, because my eyes drifted to watch the people we walked past. Most were too busy to make eye contact with me but that didn't really bother me. But one thing I noticed was even in the sea of scowls and worried faces there were always the happy faces of pokemon. Even when the world was falling apart because of a hectic economy and crime rates going through the roof people will always have pokemon to bring joy into their lives. It was kind of an amazing thought.

The farther and farther we walked, the thinner the crowds grew. The streets didn't just grow more empty but the side walks were now trimmed with patches of grass and trees giving the area a very suburban feel. Brendan stopped walking and I ended up walking straight into his back. I stumbled back and barked, "Why did we stop walking?"

Brendan growled back at me, "If you were listening and not daydreaming, you would've heard that this building ahead of us is the Rustboro Gym." I gave Brendan a nasty look and glanced at the building ahead of us. It wasn't my fault that I hadn't recognized that the building in front of us was the gym, because to put it simply…. The place was a dump.

"T-This is the gym?" My jaw went slack and Riley looked at me, and answered me, chipper, "Yeah… Since it's during the summer Roxanne should be in all week. So we're here now, let's go see if she's in!"

I began walking towards the gym with Riley but than I realized Brendan wasn't following. "Aren't you coming in with us?"

Brendan shrugged and shoved his hands into his pockets, "Nah, I got plans."

Before I could ask any question, Riley put his hand on my shoulder and gave Brendan a wave, "Kay, you go have a good time." He than spun me around and guided me into the gym.

At a closer look, the reason the gym look so dungy was because it was made of some sort of stone and there was lycan and moss growing all over it. Compared to all the other buildings around us, this gym looked like it had been here since the beginning of time. We were about to enter the front doors when one swung open and smacked me straight dab on my face. I fell back and instinctually reached for my nose, I hissed, "Fuck." My vision began to blur with tears and I felt a hand rest on my back.

"Eli, are you alright?" I turned my head to face Riley who was now crouched down beside me.

"I think so…" My eyes glanced up to see a rather pretty looking boy and he looked a tiny bit shocked at someone being on the other side of the door but quickly he began apologizing, "Oh, Arceus! I'm sorry."

He reached down and offered me a hand and I swiftly accepted it. I wiped my nose, still not full convince it wasn't bleeding, "It's alright…"

He looked at me thoughtfully for a moment and than exclaimed, "Hey, how about I make it up to you with a pokemon battle?" He laughed warmly, his brown eyes sparkling.

I stuttered, "E-err… I guess?" I looked to Riley unsure and he gave me a crooked smile and shrugged. I looked back to the boy and nodded.

He skipped past me, "Awesome! My name is Jay, by the way."

I followed him, "Eli."

Luckily there was a dirt clearing in front of the gym that we could use and Jay ran to one side, "So, are you a new pokemon trainer?"

I nodded, "Yeah, I'm only fifteen…"

Jay looked slightly of thrown, "Oh, would have thought you were seventeen like I am."

I began looking through my bag for one of my pokeballs when something crossed my mind, "You're seventeen? I thought you were younger… Since you have such a high voice and everything…"

He frowned at me from across the clearing and than it seemed like something clicked, "Wait… You don't think I'm…" His voice trailed off.

I looked at him innocently, "What?"

Jay had a pokeball in his hand and gave me a very serious look, "A boy?"

I paused. Glanced in Riley's direction on the sidelines and he looked just as confused as I was. There was a long awkward silence before I asked, "You're… A girl?"

The silence continued and Jay was looking down at the ground, I could see his… Her hand gripping tightly on the pokeball she had. She than looked up, her face flustered, "I AM, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!" She threw her pokeball onto the ground and called out, "Go Charmeleon! We're going to cream her!"

From within the pokeball burst out a ferocious looking lizard like pokemon and it spat a couple of sparks when it saw that it was on the battle field.

I licked my lips nervously, I had never battled anything nearly as strong as a Charmeleon before but using Kite I had the type advantage.

I clicked the button on my pokeball, "Come on out, Kite!" My small water type came out of its home, looking slightly drowsy. But quickly realized what was happening and prepared to face the opponent.

The Charmeleon from across the clearing took a step back and looked worriedly at it's trainer but she quickly hissed something to the pokemon and it reluctantly stepped up with some more confidence but still not quite sure about this whole situation. Jay barked at me, "A one on one battle."

I nodded and took this as a signal to go, "Kite, mud slap!" The small pokemon dashed forward and when she was about a foot away, she spat some water onto the dirt ground and whipped her tail around and threw it up into the Charmeleon's face.

The fire lizard hissed and tried to rub the grit from its face but Jay quickly retorted by calling out, "Charmeleon, use your tail to pin that Mudkip before it gets away!" The pokemon quickly listened to its trainer's commands and before I could call for Kite to move away she was slammed down by Charmeleon's tail, and being much smaller than her opponent couldn't find the strength to wiggle free.

My mind was reeling and I called, "Kite use a water gun, aim for the flame." Mudkip struggled to turn her head so she faced the fire at the end of the fire lizard's tail and she was sucking in a breath to launch her attack when Jay called out again, "Use metal claw, quick Charmeleon!"

With that, the fire pokemon quickly whipped around, releasing Kite just in time for her water gun to miss and hit a near by tree. With the momentum of the spin, the Charmeleon brought down it's now glowing claw onto the small water pokemon, creating such an impact that Kite's body created a hole in the ground. Kite let out a long cry which froze me. I stood there, I couldn't think. Mudkip tried to get up from her hole but every time she tried she fell back to the ground, she wasn't ready to give up but she was too injured to move. Jay was about to call out another command, "Charmeleon use-"

But she was cut off by a casual voice saying, "Girl, the little mudkip can't move… You win."

I looked away from my injured pokemon to see Brendan sauntering into the clearing. Jay looked at him and narrowed her eyes than called, "Charmeleon come back." She adjusted her spiky hair and added, "I win…" Crossing her arms.

Brendan looked at me and nodded his head to Mudkip, "Go on, go tend to Kite."

I looked at him, my eyes wide. I than ran to the side of my young pokemon picking her up into my arms and cradling her close to my chest.

Brendan than walked over to Jay and her pokemon and kneeled down to look at the Charmeleon. As he looked the fire pokemon over, I could see that Jay was getting slightly irritated, "Hey, bub! Who the hell do you think you are?"

Brendan stood up, looming over the girl, "I might have to say the same thing. Didn't she tell you she was a new trainer? You should know better than to fight like that, that mudkip is just a baby."

Jay face flustered, "But she-"

Brendan face darkened, "I know what she said… But you shouldn't let your temper shadow your judgement."

Jay growled, her fists clenched. Her brown eyes were fiery and it looked like she wanted to come back with an amazing retort but nothing came to mind. Eventually she scoffed and pushed past Brendan, "Come on Charmeleon."

The pokemon looked worriedly at its trainer but quickly followed. As Jay walked away she called out, "Get stronger Eli, so I can beat you for real." Than she was gone.

I stood up, mudkip still held tightly in my arms. My companions walked over to me, Riley looked extremely concerned but Brendan simply said, "Hand her to me."

I hesitated for a moment but than proceeded to give my pokemon over to Brendan. He swiftly reached into his bag and pulled out a small spray bottle and started squirting the potion onto the water pokemon. He than handed her gently back to me, "There, best put her back into her pokeball for now."

I nodded and retrieved the ball from my bag and returned the pokemon to its ball.

Riley looked at me, a piteous look on his face, "You were doing so good in the beginning, I couldn't believe how fast Kite could move."

I gave him a meek smile, "Thanks." The three of us stood there for a moment in silence and finally I moved from the group, "I don't think I'm ready to do any more battling… Can we go back to the centre?"

Both of the boys nodded and we left the gym's front lawn.

**As a note, I am still accepting OC. Each one helps me form the plot line further. (I have an idea of where this is going up to Mauville with two major plot points [look forward to those]) But because of the speed I'm writing, you may not see your oc for a bit, just a warning. (I'm not going to force the characters to show up when they're not needed) **

**THANK YOU to all of you that have been reading, without some of the praise I've been given I probably would have abandon this long ago. **

**And like always :) Review!**


	9. Pep Talk

**Sorry for not updating for... I dunno... Awhile... (Not super long) I got side tracked with an mmo I downloaded and getting ready to cosplay as Touko at a con I'm going too... But ANYWAYS, don't worry for the people who still need their characters to show up, they will. Grand plan, grand plan. Promise! Hope you guys enjoy this chapter. :)**

The boys had gone back up to the room when we returned to the pokemon centre, Riley had seemed a bit concerned about me since I had been quiet on the way back. I told him it was nothing. He didn't push me any more and he left without another word. I don't know what it was, everyone looses sometimes. But that fight made me think, 'Am I really cut out to be a pokemon trainer?'. Seeing Kite out on the battlefield, being pummelled… I froze up, I couldn't even think straight. What kind of trainer lets their pokemon get beat up like that?

It just made me so frustrated! Dad had been such a talented trainer, he always told me stories of how with his pokemon he was always able to get out of tight corners and come out victorious. Than there was mom, graceful and powerful all in one swift move, no one could command pokemon like she could… Than there's me, their failure of a child… Who can't even win a battle when she has the obvious type advantage. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid…

Before I knew it, I found myself sitting on the soft plush stool in front of the video phone dialling home. The phone rang three times before a slightly frazzled looking woman that I recognized as my mother picked up the phone. "M-mom…" I began off, not looking up from the tile floor.

I could feel her soft green eyes rest on me, "What's wrong, dear?"

I looked up and big tears whelmed up in my eyes and began pouring down my cheeks like waterfalls, "Mom! I want to come home!" I brought my hands up to my face and sobbed heavily, turning a few heads in the pokemon centre. Locals won't be forgetting my face anytime soon.

My mom began sputtering out meaningless sentiments, "Oh honey, please don't cry." Among others. But eventually when I had cried myself out she asked, "Why do you want to come home, it isn't anything to do with Riley is it?"

Her voice sounded a tad suspicious but I quickly told her, "No!" And I could see the look of relief shower over her face, "It's just…" I took a long pause, "My mudkip gotten beaten in a battle today…"

My mother cooed, "Eli-beli that happens…"

I cut her off, "But I froze up! If I had just been smarter-"

Now it was her turn interrupt, her tone harsh "Listen here Eli. Me and your father were just like you in the beginning. We didn't become who were are because we went home. We became successful because we didn't quit, when we were pushed down by someone stronger than us, we pushed harder when we trained." Her face was had a dead seriousness when she finished, "Winners don't quit."

There was a long silence, I was speechless. I had never heard mom ever speak quite like that, or ever look that… scary. But in a matter of moments, the dark look on mom's face evaporated and was replaced with the pep I recognized, "There's a pokemon contest on wednesday in Rustboro. I think you should enter." She tilted her head and smiled at me.

I began, "But mom-" I leaned forward in my seat but she hushed me.

"No 'buts' Eli." She paused and gave me a large smile, "Now be safe, say hello to Riley for me. Bye-Bye."

Before I could even say goodbye to my mom she had hung up. She had always been so abrupt… Shooting off in different directions faster than anyone could keep track of.

I sat there on the stool for a few minutes until an older man that appeared to be in his mid thirties asked if I was still using the phone, I shook my head and than let him take my place in front of the video phone.

I slowly walked away into the lounge area, feeling slightly disoriented. But I slowly made it back up to the rooms.

The pokemon centre was still as busy as last night so the hallways were filled with aspiring trainers, coordinators and even some backpackers. I knocked the door to the room, to be greeted by Riley who was wearing a black t-shirt and a pair of plaid shorts. His eyebrows furrowed and he stepped to the side so I could come into the room, "You feeling better, Eli?"

The first thing I saw when I came into the room was Brendan sprawled across the couch, his hat on the ground and Froslass sitting on his stomach. At first I was confused at what exactly I was seeing until I realized how boiling it was in the room. "Why the hell is it so hot in here?"

Brendan without looking at me, "We had an orgy, too bad you missed it." Froslass brought up one of her arm up to her mouth and appeared to be giggling. And I simply looked back at Riley and his face was flushed.

"D-don't joke about that." He began to stutter. I couldn't help but think he looked extremely adorable all red faced but he continued by assuring me, "Nothing happened, Eli." He crossed his arms and looked away.

Brendan scoffed, and shifted on the couch, "Shit and giggles aside. Even in this sauna of a room, we have an ice pokemon. Lili use frost breath." With that, the ice pokemon opened her mouth and I saw whispy air begin to flow from it. The floor soon became covered in a mist, similar to dry ice and the temperature seemed to fall a few degrees, back to bearable. Brendan finally made eye contact with me, "We just have to keep doing this every fifteen minutes and hopefully none of us melt."

I sighed, and began to complained even though the room was now a comfortable temperature, "Why wouldn't a big pokemon centre like this _not_ have A/C?"

Riley sauntered over to one of the beds and fall back on it letting out a breath of relief while Brendan replied to me, "Because its a non-profit organization, smart-one."

I frowned at the dark haired boy, he didn't always have to be so condescending. But I was quickly reminded of what my mother had said, "I phoned my mom."

Brendan sat up on the couch, picking up Lili by her small waist and setting her beside him, "And what?"

I walked over and sat on one of the three bed's in the room, "She said I should enter the pokemon contest that's happening on Wednesday."

Riley chimed in, "But that's two days away!"

I shrugged, "She said I should do it…"

Brendan asked, nonchalantly, "You'll be destroyed…"

"W-what?" I stuttered, it was probably true but he didn't have to say it so blatantly.

Brendan looked over to me, "Pokemon coordinating is an art. It isn't like pokemon battles where its determined on who can wipe the others pokemon out the fastest. Its about grace and skill. Even if you can overpower your opponent, if you're sloppy you'll still loose." His pale face dark with seriousness. But I could see his face begin to change at the sight of my worried expression. He looked away from me and snickered, "Don't look so scared. You know who you're talking too, right?"

I didn't reply, my mind was too occupied with thoughts of freezing and having my poor pokemon being horrible beaten before me. And my failure being… Broadcasted…. The thought terrified me.

"Eli!" A pause, "Eli, listen to me!" I blinked a few times, and saw that Brendan was trying to get my attention. "If you're not going to be a space case, I might have a few tips for you." He pointed to himself, slightly cocky, "You have a trainer who has competed in both the Grand Festival and Hoenn League."

I hesitated and than asked, "You're going to help me?"

Brendan took Froslass into his arms and flopped back down onto the couch, "Didn't I just say that?" He threw his hand up and pointed at me, "That's what I'm talking about. You better listen better when I'm teaching you."

I clenched my hands and I was this close to walking over there and introducing him to my fist but I tried to let it go. There'd be no reason to start any conflict, "Whatever." I added for good measure, to show him that I'm not just taking his shit.

"Okay, but better not give me any sass later. And if I'm going to be your teacher, call me…" There was a pause and I could just imagine the smirk on his face, "Master Brendan."

Master…. Brendan? That was it, I stood up from the bed and began walking over to Brendan when Riley grabbed my arms and began laughing, his voice full of tension, "Okay guys, let's play nice now…"

Once it had cooled off in the evening, me and Brendan went down to the large dirt clearing in behind the pokemon centre. Surprisingly enough there was not a single soul around, usually in the evening the place would be flooded with trainers working with their pokemon.

Once we had gotten out to the field, Brendan turned to me, his dark crimson eyes looking sleepy like always. "Do you know which pokemon you want to use?"

It really hadn't crossed my mind and I rubbed my chin thoughtful and before I could answer, Brendan chimed in, "You should use Kite. She's small and agile, cute. Which will win the judges. Also she can preform showier moves than your other two pokemon."

Because Brendan had said to use my mudkip made me want to use Kuro or my Shroomish. But the more I thought about it, he was completely right. I scowled, "Fine." Reaching into my bag I pulled out Kite's pokeball and released the pokemon.

She looked much better than she had when I last saw her. She bounced over to me and hugged my leg and I felt a twinge of guilt. She was so loyal to me even after I failed her in battle. I looked to Brendan and asked, "So what are you going to teach me, Br-"

Brendan cut me off, "Master Brendan, remember that's the agreement."

I grimaced at him and muttered, "Master Brendan."

Brendan smiled, pleased that he had gotten to submit to him. "Good, now does Kite know any ice moves?"

"No." I replied simply.

Brendan thought for a moment. Than reached for his belt and pulled off one of his pokeballs to release Lili from it. He put his hands into his pockets and asked his feminine ghost pokemon, "Lili, could you direct this mudkip on how to use ice moves?"

Lili nodded, bowing her head slightly before gesturing for Kite to follow her.

I looked at Brendan slightly confused, "Why ice moves?"

Brendan sighed as if what I had asked was a stupid question. After a long pause he finally dignified my question with an answer, "Ice moves are flashy and create beautiful combos. If your pokemon can learn them, learn'em."

I nodded. Even though Brendan could be a dick face, I had to admit he did know his stuff.

"Elemental moves belonging to fire, electric, water, ice and things along those lines are the best to catch the judges attention, especially moves that are consider special attacks. But by themselves, you'll look an amateur. You need to create combos to showcase the moves and show their true potential. Once you've mastered creating combos like that, you can start looking making something truly original." He smirked.

It was a lot of information to take in but I could understand what he was trying to say, remembering seeing old footage of my mother competing in contests. But he didn't pause for long before he continued on, "And that's only talking about the appeal. Once you get through the first round, the true contest begins."

After about an hour of talking with Brendan about form, style, judges, combos and everything you need to know about creating a show stopping performance, Brendan began to guide me through creating combos and we spent another hour practicing with Kite.

I was just finishing one last practice run of a combo with Kite before I called from across the field where Brendan was sitting with Froslass, "You had said that you competed in the Grand Festival, right? Did you win?"

Brendan shook his head, "Nah, the competitors were way out of my league. I was just some first timer…."

I pushed for more, "Where did you rank?"

"Fifteenth."

Even if he didn't rank high, that was still amazing. Hundreds of coordinators from all over Hoenn come and compete in the Grand Festival, of course many are eliminated in the first round so fifteenth was still impressive. Although, I wouldn't let on that I was impressed. "Cool."

Kite had finished the combo I had asked of her and she flopped onto the ground afterwards and mewled, "Muuuudkip!"

She must be tired, she had had a long day after all. Brendan stood up from the bench he had been sitting at and walked over to me, "You did good today, that mudkip of yours has some real talent. Let's go back into the centre and grab Riley for dinner, its getting dark."

I nodded and called, "Come on, Kite!" The small water pokemon obliged and ran up to me and than demanded to be carried. I quickly submitted and picked up the mudkip. As both me and my companion walked back to the centre's entrance I mused, feeling a small gurgle in the bottom of my stomach, "I wonder what they're serving tonight for dinner?"

**As a last note, if there's any characters from the anime, games, or manga or _whatever_ that you want to see a cameo from in this fic, feel free to leave a review or PM me. **

**And as always, please leave a review :D**


	10. Rustboro Contest Part 1: The Appeal

**The contest begins, duh duh duh, will Eli finally succeeded at something? Only time will tell XD **

**Okay, so I've come to a point where I'm like... "What do I want to happen in this fic...?" And I thought I'd like to ask you guys what you'd like to see (Gym and contests wise anyways) So there's a poll on my profile that I'd like as many of you to answer as possible. So if you got a moment before or after reading the new chapter to zip over there and answer the poll, that'd be awesome :) Enjoy the chapter, ladies and gents :3**

The last place I thought I would find myself was backstage in a dressing room with my mother trying to zip up a dress that was way to small for me. "Mom, the dress is too small! Give up!" I twisted my neck around to try and see my mother who was knelt down behind me struggling to zip up the bodice of a ice blue evening gown. But she aggressively pushed me forward and commanded, "Hold your arms in front of you."

I was growing more and more scared of this person that was my mother, she was really a different person when it comes to contests. I listened with out complaint and reached forward and leaned against the wall of the dress room when she zipped up the dress in one fatal swoop. "There, see it isn't too small."

I looked at my reflection in the mirror and saw my torso was shaped and squeezed to emphasize my waist and my bust. The tightness of the dress pushing my breast up and they looked like they were about to jump right out of the dress, but I quickly looked away from that to see right below my hips the dress flared out into a floor length skirt, which was gathered in the front to reveal a white iridescent petticoat. I looked over to my mom and gave her a look of doubt, "Are you sure? Couldn't I wear one of my other dresses?"

My mother began pushing me out of the dressing room, "No, none of them would do. And anyways, I wore this dress when I was your age."

When we were out of the room, my mother took a hair pin from her dress pocket and began pinning my red hair up in a relaxed bun, letting wavy tendrils to fall around my face. Riley and Brendan were sitting on the waiting benches in the dress room and I couldn't help but notice Brendan eyeing up some of the female contestants since not all of them had exactly concealing dresses. As we approached them, both boys turned their head to look at me and my mother, and Riley looked away a tiny bit bashful, "Wow Eli, you look…"

Brendan chimed in, nonchalantly, "Good for once."

Riley began to stutter, "I w-was going to say-"

But my mother cut him off, "Finished." As she tucked one last piece of hair behind my ear. She spun me around and gave me one last look down, "Good." She nodded her head and gave me the first smile I had seen out of her since she began my 'grand makeover'. She gave me a warm hug and whispered, "Good luck." She broke the embrace and held my shoulders with her petite hands, "Go give them a good performance, I'll be watching from the audience." She than quickly scurried off… Going to say it again, she always moved faster than anyone could keep track of.

I turn to the two boys, "Gosh… There's a lot of contestants…"

Brendan sighed, "Don't let them get to you. You'll lose before you even see the stage."

Riley punched Brendan in the shoulder, "Sheesh, you could be a bit more positive. You'll do fine, you've been training like crazy for the past two days." He gave me a large grin and I felt like maybe this won't be a horrible failure.

Just as Riley finished his sentence, the hostess of the contest came into the dress room and announced that the first round will be going live in fifteen minutes and anyone who is competing please follow her to the green room. I waved to my companions, "Bye guys."

Riley gave me a wave, "We'll be cheering with your mom. Good luck!"

Brendan stood up and gave me a pat on the head, "You've worked hard. You've got this in the bag." Than he turned his back to me and began walking away, his hands sunk deep into his pockets, "Come on Riley, before the good seats are taken."

Riley gave me a smile and than darted after Brendan. I quickly joined the herd of contestants to the green room and I could tell that the contest was already beginning.

I was so glad that I had everyone here cheering for me, mom even flew in from Littleroot to see my first performance live. A couple of days before I was positive that I should quit and go home. But with everyones support, Riley pushing me, Brendan teaching me, and… Mom scaring me… I felt like I could actually do this. I can't forget about my three pokemon, they've been working so hard for me these past two days. But as I followed the crowd, I felt a little ball of fear form in the pit of my stomach. Something in my head began to whisper, 'You could still freeze up.' and 'Failure is always a possibility.' I tried to shut them up but those thoughts kept bubbling up. I was terrified of messing up…

There was nothing else I could do but wait for my turn…

I began trying to distract myself, if think about other things, I don't have to think about going out on the stage. And the first thing I noticed was that the green room wasn't even green… it was more blue than anything. Secondly was how fucking hot it was. I know that the past few days all I could keep saying was, how hot it was. But this was truly a sauna. When you put sixty plus people into a tiny room, all breathing the same air, things got sticky quite quickly.

I tried to stay to the edge of the room, taking a seat on one of the benches when I noticed someone take a seat beside me. He wasn't dressed up like everyone else was, dressed simply in a t-shirt and a pair of shorts. I pretended to not notice him, keeping my vision looking forward, but I couldn't help but watch him from the corner of my eye. He was sort of cute, but it seemed like he didn't quite care what he looked like, his hair flipping up in all directions and his eyelids rested heavy giving him a exhausted appearance. I was distracted from checking out this guy when the stage manager called for the first contestant. But my attention was quickly grabbed when I felt something squeeze my breast. I looked back to see that the boy that had been sitting beside me had begun to grope my boob! I squeaked, pushing him away, "What the fuck!?" My voice was drowned out by the aimless chatter of all the other contestants.

He looked up at me, and I noticed the bright emerald colour of his eyes, "They just looked so perky…" He shrugged and straightened his back, and yawned, "I thought you wouldn't mind…"

How could I NOT mind some random guy feeling me up?! I reached back and slapped him, but it was kind of half hearted. Didn't even make a good smack sound. He rubbed his cheek, his sleepy eyes didn't even widen but he frowned at me, his voice lax, "You could just ask me not to do it again…" I pursed my lips crossing my arms over my chest.

He looked at me and smiled mildly, "You should smile more, guys like girls who smile…" I narrowed my eyes at him but he continued before I could say anything, "My name is Blake by the way. You're Eli right?"

I shot him a look, "How do you know my name?"

"Heard you talking with your friends in the dress room."

I looked away from him and at the television at the front of the room where they showed each contestant doing their appeal, "Great, you're not only a pervert but a creeper too." I spat, not giving him a second look. I didn't mean to sound bitter but really? What else could I say?

Blake chuckled, "You're not afraid to speak your mind are you?"

I shifted in my seat, trying to focus on watching the other contestants but I muttered, "You'd be surprised."

He laughed, and he continued to talk, "You want to know something funny?"

I gave him a quick look from the corner of my eye and decided to humour him, "Sure."

He brought his hand up to his lips and snickered, than whispered to me, "I'm not even competing. I wanted to talk to you, but I was to nervous to say hi to you before." Than he began to laugh again, as if he just told the punch line to a funny joke.

I gave him a dumbfounded look, I wasn't quite sure what to make of this guy. He was just… Weird. But I didn't have more than two moments to thing about it before the stage manager called, "Eli Sapphire? You're up."

I quickly got up and retrieved Kite's pokeball from my bag which I left on the bench. As I walked away, I pointed to Blake, "Don't you even think about touching my bag." I pointed to my own eyes and directed my fingers in his direction and than turned to follow the stage manager down the hall way to the stage.

As I approached the stage entrance I could hear the roar of the crowd and I felt the pounding of my heart deep within my chest. Shit. I couldn't stop shaking and those thoughts kept creeping into my head. I clenched my fists and told my brain to just shut up. There was no way I could mess up. No way…

But than I heard the hostess begin to announce the next contestant… Me.

"Our next coordinator is Eli Sapphire, a first time competitor from Littleroot Town." Than the crowd grew louder and I ran on, my eyes shut. But as I took centre stage, I looked up to the sprawling auditorium and without thinking I gave the whole crowd a big smile and a curtsy, my body was reacting without me thinking. I heard a few screams from the back and I brought my pokeball up to my face gave it a small peck before I took a spin to threw Kite's pokeball out onto the stage in front of me, "Kite, take the spotlight!"

The small water pokemon came tumbling out, bouncing and leaping all around the stage. Giving a wink, I called, "Kite, use rain dance"

Kite stopped running around and balanced onto her hind legs and began hoping side to side and began to follow a more intricate dance pattern. I sneaked a quick glance at the judges to see their faces. It seemed like Nurse Joy liked the act so far but I couldn't tell with any of the other judges. I quickly brought my attention back to my pokemon, as rain mysteriously began to fall onto the stage. I called out, "Use ice beam!"

I didn't have to say anything else because the mudkip knew exactly what I expected. She stopped her dance and began shoot an ice beam directly up into the air and spun around so it seemed like a stream of light was trailing in the sky, freezing the falling rain.

The stage, the air, everything was becoming covered in beautiful little frozen crystals. We managed to continue the performance for fifteen seconds before the rain began to fade away and Mudkip had to stop her ice beam. Even though the whole performance had drained Kite, she bounded over to me and both me and my pokemon took a bow.

The crowd cheered loudly for us. And I felt my heart swell, it wasn't a failure, we managed to pull of the combo without a hitch. Nothing could go wrong!

But did the judges like it?

The hostess closed our performance with a cut and paste comment and than both me and my water pokemon dashed off, giving the crowd one last wave. The stage hands ushered us back into the green room, and when we returned most of the contestants didn't give me a second look although there was a few glares. I bit my lip nervously, even though I felt really good when I was preforming and Kite did perfectly, I couldn't shake the feeling that we hadn't left an impression on anyone. Not even my fellow contestants. I was navigating my way through the crowded room when I felt a pat on my back, I glanced behind me to see Blake walking beside me. "That was good, didn't expect a girl like you to have any talent."

Soon we made it back to the bench where my bag was sitting and I scowled at him, "Girl like me?" As we took a seat.

He shrugged, resting his head against the wall and shutting his eyes, "Dunno, you just seem…" He paused for a long bit and I swore he some how dozed off but finally he muttered, "Dunno."

I leaned back and crossed my arms while Kite went and sat on my lap, "You're so detailed, I don't know how you do it."

I heard Blake chortle beside me, "Man, you're more interesting than I could have imagined."

I sat up and gave him a dafaq face and I was about to ask in a rather upset manner what that meant but it seemed like he had fallen asleep… Arceus, this guy was really something…

I slumped back into a comfortable position, and watch as each contestant was called up to preform. I could only hope that I'd make it through the first round…

**Also, forgot to mention this, but after the current poll expect a silly one about shipping that I'd like you guys input on. :3**

**And like always, review :3**


	11. Rustboro Contest Part 2: The Battle

**This chapter is brought to you by: Lyssie's willpower! ****I've pretty much procrastinated all day about writing this but finally I told myself because I said I would put it up this evening to someone I sat down TORE my face off of Memebase/QuickMeme and wrote this all in one go. I know it's technically not evening anymore (early morning XD)but... CLOSE ENOUGH! Three notes: **

**1. Thank you to the THREE of you who voted on my poll (You beautiful anonymous people :GrinFace: -Meme face, google that shit) **

**2. I realized how much I fucking love writing battles, more of it in the future. (pointless note)**

**3. Because of the voters on the poll and their SHEER NUMBERS *sarcasm* Eli will be competing in both gyms and contests and Riley will be also competing... So we're going to be stuck in Rustboro for a while long... Yay...**

**Hope you enjoy the newest chapter :3**

I hadn't realized how long it actually takes to get through the first round of appeals. It seemed like it was at least an hour and a half of appeal after appeal but Blake (Once I had woken him up by pinching his nose) seemed savvy enough to keep the conversation rolling. As I spoke with him more, he continued to support the idea that he was… Someone who marches to the beat of his own drum to put it simply. But even I had to admit it was better than sitting there petting Kite raw with anxiety. Being so antsy, I had began to notice a few curious eyes wandering over to us. I wasn't quite sure why people kept looking over here, my appeal had been one of the first so it wasn't like people had suddenly become threatened by me. I was half listening to Blake talk, when I noticed a security guard pushing his way through the crowded room. His khaki uniform seemed dull compared to the colourful show costumes but he brought enough attention to himself as the contestants parted like the red sea for him to travel across the room. It took me a moment to realize he was heading in our direction.

I cut Blake off mid-sentence, "I think that guard is coming over here." My voice barely audible over the grumble of small talk in the room.

He looked at me, his eyes half shut in his usual dopey expression, "What guard?"

As he said that, the security guard was standing in front of us, "That one." I muttered.

"Sir, are you competing?" The guard spoke with a profession baritone voice.

Blake stood up, even with his slumped posture he was taller than the stout guard, "Funny story actually-" He laughed light heartedly. But the guard obviously wasn't interested in hearing Blake's antics.

"Sir, I'm going to ask you to leave."

Blake sighed looking down at the ground but than looked up the guard with a goofy grin, "You're the boss." He looked at me, "Later Eli."

Both of them stood there for a long moment before Blake asked in a joking voice, "So where you taking me, big guy?"

I could tell the guard was wishing he could palm himself in the face and I didn't disagree with him but he resisted the urge and simply said, exasperated, "Follow me…" And he began to walk towards the exit.

Blake turned back to me, and pretended to wave a handkerchief at me as he followed the guard out of the room, "Until we meet again Eli Sapphire! Good luck."

Than he was gone.

That…. Was interesting.

I looked out into the room to see that almost everyone was looking at me and I barked, "What are you looking at?" And hesitantly everyone went back to talking casually amongst themselves. Shit… Why do I always attract so much attention where ever I go?

Even after all the coordinators had finished their appeal we still had to sit for another brutal half an hour for the judges to make their decisions on who was going to make it to the second round of the contest but thankfully during that they had a half time show of a sort and showed famous clips from past contests here in Rustboro, sort of 'Look through the ages.' I guess…

Than the moment of truth came. Out of all of the sixty contestants only sixteen make it through. I know the odds were against me but a girl could dream.

Every single coordinator watched the screen intently as they began listing off names of contestants moving into the next round….

_Henry Grey…_

_Mey-rin Chang…_

_Zoey Zharo…_

With each name listed, my heart began to beat faster and I squeezed Kite slightly closer to my chest. I'm not going to make it through… I was a fool to even try…

_Cam Lemke…_

Why did I even listen to my mom about entering…

_Holly Small…_

I'm just not meant to train pokemon…

_…_

They finally got to the last coordinator, and I'm not sure if the judges are the biggest trolls ever or what but they took a longer pause than they had for all the other spots and I felt like I was going to vomit, they weren't going to say my name but a horrible little part of my heart still was hoping for them to announce my name… _Eli Sapphire… _But who am I kidding…

_Eli Sapphire…_

See, I'm a failure…

…Wait… Did they just… Did they just say my name? I looked around the room dazed and than down to Kite who was grinning widely up at me and singing her name repetitively. They… They did say my name! I jumped up from my seat and screamed, "Ahhhhhhhhh yeah~" Throwing my fist up into the air, cradling Kite under my other arm.

I was elated until I realized once again I had every single pair of eyes in the room set on me and I slowly retracted my pumped fist and sat back down, slumping my shoulders. That was a special moment….

But I didn't have long to dwell on it because the second round was starting, thankfully I wasn't first but unfortunately I was second. Life can't be prefect and anyways, I MADE IT INTO THE SECOND ROUND! And that's all that truly matter.

I gave Kite a warm hug and praised her endlessly, "You did so good! We did it!" But I knew that I wouldn't be able to use her for the second round, any good coordinator never uses the same pokemon for appeals and the battling portions. Unless you like giving your opponents advantages. I returned my mudkip to her pokeball giving her one last compliment and than leaned back on the bench.

Even though the battle hadn't started I had to think hard on my plan of attack. I had two other pokemon, Kinoko (My shroomish) or Kuro. I still wasn't confident in Kinoko's abilities, she was still a new pokemon to me… Even though Kuro only had mainly close combat attacks (which could put me in a real bind if my opponent pulls out a balanced pokemon) I felt like I could show him off better. But I was quickly distracted when I heard my name called, it was my turn.

I snatched up Kuro's pokeball and hurried after the stage manager. Unlike when I did my appeal, I felt excited to go on stage. When I had been training with Kuro the last two days, he showed that he had more potential than I (Or even Brendan) had originally thought a wild Poochyena could offer and I was excited to show him off now that I had decided to use him. Although we hadn't mastered all four moves that we had learned he would be capable to use(because that would be insanity), we had managed to get one under our belt and when we use it I bet everyone will be shocked. I was beginning to feel giddy at the thought of seeing my opponent hesitate. As I charged onto the stage when they announced my name, I gave the roaring crowd a big grin and wave. Than I looked across the stage to see my opponent.

She had long blonde hair and massive blue eyes, she looked exactly like a porcelain doll in her dress except the fact she was rather… Well endowed. Trying to be friendly I gave her a smile, "Let's have a good battle?"

She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at me.

I slowly let my smile slip away to be replaced with a look of confusion. "Errrr…."

She than pointed at me with a deadly look on her face, "Eli Sapphire. My name is Holly Small and if I beat you you have to give me Blake Shaw!"

I simply stood there, dumbfounded.

_What...?_

I looked at the crowd and than tried to collect the confused thoughts flying through my head. I can't loose my head, I gotta stay cool. So I replied with a casual shrug, "Sorry to break it to you but I don't own-"

Holly cut me off and took a position that made it seem like she was about to throw a hissy fit, "I don't care, he's mine, bitch!"

I resisted the urge to tell this girl she takes cra cra to a whole new level but the hostess quickly stepped in, "It seems like there's a love rivalry between these two girls. And we here today will get to witness the battle deciding who wins the heart they both desire." I heard the crowd begin to coo and I wasn't going to let this turn into some sort of bachelor episode and I exclaimed, "But I don't desir-"

Once again the hostess cut me off, "Choose your pokemon and let the battle begin!"

Holly tossed out her pokeball, "Wigglytuff I choose you, we'll show Blake how much we love him!" She pointed out into the crowd and blew a kiss to where I saw Blake had found a spot to watch.

Shit... She was super nuts but I reminded myself that I couldn't let this whole thing throw me off, I quickly tossed out my own pokeball, "Kuro, take the spotlight!"

The small dog pokemon came out furious and howled loudly upon seeing it was on the battle ground.

Holly scoffed at me, "You think you're going to beat me with that pokemon, you're more stupid than I thought!"

I bit my lip, oh I could take her. I could totally take her. The hostess decided it was alright to exploit the whole rivalry thing and began rallying up the crowd, than she shouted, "Let the battle… Begin!"

The five minute clock on the back of the stage began and the two circles showing our remaining points were revealed. Holly beat me to the first move and called, "Wigglytuff use sing!" On cue the pink bunny pokemon began to sing a sweet song and I felt even myself feeling its effect. I saw Kuro sway slightly and I eyed my points, and they were slowly falling!

But I wasn't going to let this chick take me out that easily, "Kuro, retort with a howl!" Kuro perked up and let out a ear piercing howl, and I noticed Holly cover her ears, I saw a chunk of her points disappear. Haha… bitch.

She squealed, "Wigglytuff get in there and use double slap to stop that horrible sound!"

Before my brain had time to react, I saw the normal type pokemon appear before mine and began slapping him in the face repeatedly. I was shocked at first on how fast her Wigglytuff was but it quickly clicked in my head, this was my chance, she initiated the close-combat. I called, "Kuro use assurance!"

The wigglytuff didn't stop her attack as Kuro began to glow with a dark aura but by the time she noticed it was too late to move out of the way of Kuro's attack and the small dog pokemon launched into the bunny pokemon's stomach and sent her across the stage. I smirked, assurance by itself wasn't a very strong move but because my poochyena had just taken damaged it doubled in its power. I looked to Holly, "Your move… Biotch."

Her face was flustered, and I couldn't help but laugh at how pissed off she looked but she stomped her foot with her next command, "Wigglytuff, use drain punch!"

Drain punch… The thought resinated for a moment in my mind… It was a fighting move… Super effective against dark types. Fuck! "Kuro, get out of there!" But it was to late because he was already being pounded into the ground by the bigger pokemon. He wasn't going to last much longer underneath that kind of attack, I stuttered, looking up to see the satisfied looking Holly, "U-Uhh, Use.. Err." There was only move that came to mind, and I knew I had to use it, "Ice fang!" I hadn't wanted to save that move for a moment in battle I could have really shown it off but what else could I do?

My poochyena through the flurry of punches managed to sink his maw onto wigglytuff's fist and I could see ice begin to form around the pokemon's arm. I felt my heart skip a beat, there was a small chance that ice fang could freeze its target. I was lucking out! My little dog pokemon held on tightly as the Wigglytuff began to hammer against his head with her free arm.

I heard Holly call out, "Retreat Wigglytuff."

The normal type pokemon gave the arm Poochyena was clinging onto a swing and sent the pokemon flying and moved back, cradling her frozen limb.

I looked at Kuro as he struggled to get onto his paws, he had gotten really badly hurt from that string of drain punches. I looked at my dark type pokemon, "Are you okay?"

He glanced back at me, a look of determination present on his face. He barked a few times before he looked across the stage to where his opponent stood. I nodded, I understood that this was personal to him now.

I felt confident that Wigglytuff couldn't use its frozen arm, which made me feel a bit better about close combat. Her movements would be unbalanced if she tried any more punching attacks, and if I was lucky it would also slow her down. Even if she could muster up another fighting attack, it would sloppy and even Holly wasn't dumb enough to make a sloppy attack in this battle… I hope. I called, "Kuro, get in there and use bite!"

Holly barked at her pokemon, "Wigglytuff, use wake-up slap!" Apparently I was wrong, fuck! Her wigglytuff stumbled forward trying to compensate for it's limp appendage and went into attack Poochyena head on. Even if her points were falling she was planning on finishing me with this last move, her points didn't matter. I was scrambling for some way I could come out victorious in this battle.

I cried, just wanting my pokemon to get out of there without getting hit again by a super-effective move, "Kuro, run away!" But he wasn't listening to me anymore, he kept charging towards the pink bunny pokemon and he leapt up so he could attack from above and completely dodge Wigglytuff's wake-up slap and I was speechless, it could be either pokemon's fight now. But suddenly Kuro was enveloped in a white light and as he came crashing down on the Wigglytuff, he was no longer smaller than she was, he was no longer a poochyena for that matter.

It seemed as though, Kuro had evolved into a mightyena half way through the battle. The crowd fell silent for a moment, to only have Holly's shrill voice break the silence, "That's not fair!" Her words rang through the acoustic stadium. But it didn't matter, I smirked, with poochyena now a powerful mightyena pinning her pokemon to the ground without a problem, I had this in the bag. I was about to call out, "Kuro, finish it off with-" When there was a chime sound. What was the chiming sound for?

The hostess pranced out and announced to the audience, "The five minutes are up. Whoever has the most points will move on. And it is…" She paused for a long moment, "Holly Small!"

I looked up at the scoreboard, the two score circles were about half way depleted and at first I couldn't even see what the difference was until I saw that she had beaten me by only a minuscule amount of points… I stammered, "I-I lost?" I felt my hands begin to shake as my newly evolved Mightyena got off of Wigglytuff and came over to my side.

I heard Holly begin to laugh manically, "Haha, you're such a weak trainer, I knew the clock was about up anyways!" She looked out at the audience, "Blakey-wakey, I'm expecting a victory kiss." She shook her large breasts and than proceeded to walk off stage still laughing.

The hostess began to recap the battle and started to ramble off some filler talk to the audience as Kuro nudged my hand and guided me off the stage. I had lost again…

I was allowed to leave when I had returned to the green room and I was glad too. I got a few compliments from the coordinators I past but I didn't give them much other than a washed out, "Thank you." I just really want to get out of here, than go lock myself in the bathroom and maybe cry for awhile...

I left backstage and was greeted by Riley, Brendan and my mom. I gave them a shrug and a meek laugh, "Man, guess I do suck…" My voice sounded off to me since I was trying to fight back tears, pretend you're alright. Pretend you're alright Eli...

Than something I hadn't expected to happen, happened. My mother walked up to me, looked me straight in the eyes and than proceeded to slap me. "What are you talking about? If you had been given another ten seconds you would've destroyed that arrogant girl!"

I held my throbbing cheek and looked at at her, speechless.

Brendan chimed in with his cool demeanour, "She's right. If there hadn't been a time limit, you would've won that battle."

Now that I thought about it, they were right… I had almost won. There is no reason to be ashamed of that lost.

I straightened my back and gave them a more confident smile, "You're right." I put my hands on my hips and felt myself perk up. What was I thinking? I was getting so caught up in my own self-pity that I didn't realize that I had almost won, next time, I just need to be even stronger. I was about to go on a tangent about training more when I heard a deep gurgle noise.

I looked down and saw Kuro looking up at me wistfully. I furrowed my eyebrows and laughed, "Can we maybe go out for dinner?"

My mom gave me a warm smile, "Sure thing."

We all began walking out of the lobby of the stadium when Riley chimed in, "By the way… Who's Blake?"

**CHAPTER BLOODY ELEVEN! Woot! Doing a quick re-read before posting I realized all the meme references I made in this chapter D: Stupid meme's corrupting my thoughts and writings .! **

**And like always, please review :)**


	12. Post Contest Blues

**Hey guys~ Long time no write, huh? Sorry 'bout that. I'll give you my excuses now, I started high school and I thought it would be an EXCELLENT idea to do all honours (Or AP or whatever) including my bane of all classes, science . And also, I thought it'd be fun to throw a crap load of extracurricular theatre activity on top of that, yaaaaay~ **

**So that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. So, I apologize ahead of time late updates and such. I was planning on having the first gym battle this chapter but I thought you guys waited long enough so I'm just posting what I've written so far (Which I delayed as long as possible because I thought it was going to like 700 characters which is unexceptable) but it turned out to over 2000... Sooo... Delayed for nothing :3 I hope you enjoy this long awaited chapter.**

After several embarrassing stories and my mom having a few too many to drink, we were able to finally leave the restaurant. Having my dignity severally crippled by my two companions knowing all the weird shit I did when I was little, I walked my mom down the street a tiny bit to say my good bye.

She was leaning heavily on my shoulder, and was rambling some broken thoughts, and I looked over to her worriedly, "You sure you'll be fine for the fly home?"

She pulled away from me and stumbled back, rubbing her eyes sleepily, "Don't- Don't you worry about me… I… I got Aero… He'll get me home…" She reached for her hip but looked shocked to see what she was looking for wasn't there. She looked at me confused, "Where's my belt?"

I gave her a piteous smile, "Your pokeballs are in your purse, mom." She gave me a blank look and I sighed. I guess this is what it was like to take care of a small child. I slid the bag strap from off of her shoulder and she fought a tiny bit, "What are you doing?" She tried to shove me away with noodle arms.

I grabbed the purse and showed her the bag. She blinked a few times, I guess she didn't fully understand in her drunk state but at least she wasn't struggling with me any longer. I unzipped the bag and I saw several small compartments within the bag. It took me a second to figure out whose ball was whose but I eventually found the pokemon that would be giving my mother a ride home. Pulling out the pokeball I gave her the purse back and than took it upon myself to release her pokemon for her. In a flash of white light a large dragon-like pokemon emerge in front of me. It let a small coo at the sight of me and pushed it's nose against my cheek. "Nice to see you too, Aero." I stroked him on the nose.

Mom let a small squee and threw herself around the aerodactyl's neck, "Aero~" The pokemon rested his head on his trainer's back in an endearing way as she cuddled him. I looked at the flying type and asked, "Can you make sure she gets home alright?"

The pokemon looked me straight in the eye and cooed, assuring me with his confidence. I looked past him to see my mom was already trying to scramble onto his back. A slight wave of relief went over me, at least I wouldn't have to help her with everything. I watched for a moment as my mom was finding her position on his back when I heard a slightly irritated Brendan call, "Hurry it up, some people would like to get back to the centre!"

I yelled back, "Give me a second!" I turned back to my mother and it seemed like she had found a secure sitting position, straddling the spike on the middle of Aero's back. She was still mumbling some meaningless phrases but it seemed like she was about to dowse off. I sighed, I would be worrying about her all night.

I patted Aero's nose, "Alright boy, time to fly home!" He let out a large screech that made me cringe, fuck, I bet he just woke up the whole neighbourhood! I looked around frantically at the apartment buildings around, watching for any lights flickering on. None did. I looked to Aero as he took a couple large strides forward and than shot up into the air, throwing a gust of wind back at me, forcing me to take a step back. I watched as the pokemon flew higher into the sky until I could no longer see his grey hide in the night sky.

I walked over to join Brendan and Riley. All three of us than began the trek back to the pokemon centre. Quickly, Riley inquired, "Are you sure it was a good idea for your mom to fly home when she was in such a… state?"

I shrugged, "She assured me she was fine, and I trust her aerodactyl will take care when they fly."

Riley seemed to be even more worried than me but he didn't say to much more about it. We all walked in silence for a few minutes and I had noticed that Brendan seemed to be a bit out of sorts, but I decided that I better not bring it up. Because either he'll just not tell me or he'll get pissed and his mood will worsen even more. I was starting to feel a tiny bit uncomfortable when Riley began to talk, "I was thinking… Maybe I should go challenge the gym tomorrow… And I was wondering if you'd want to come challenge the gym too, Eli."

I looked at him, a tiny bit stupefied. I had forgotten all about the gym. Just at the beginning of this week I had thought I was going to challenge it until… Until I battled Jay and I had thought I would never want to battle my pokemon again… But after that contest, did I want to challenge the league too? "O-Oh… Uh." I stuttered mindlessly.

Riley saw that I was startled at his remark and laughed bashfully, "I just thought I'd ask, I was hoping you'd come watch my challenge anyways and I thought maybe while we're there you'd like to make a challenge too." He scratched his head.

I looked ahead of me and I almost expected Brendan to chime in saying I should just do it but when I quickly glanced up to catch a look at him he looked to busy in his own thoughts to even be listening to our conversation. I wrapped my arms around my waist and looked to Riley, a small smirk on my face, "I'll definitely come see your challenge… But…"

Riley shrugged, "Don't worry to much about it, you can always decide tomorrow, right?"

I nodded, and muttered, "Right."

Once we had reached the centre it was pretty late, almost one in the morning. The lobby of the pokemon centre was dark and I couldn't help but think it was a tiny bit eery to see the place so empty and quiet. Thankfully we didn't have to wake Nurse Joy for our room since we already had a room key. We all shuffled quietly into the housing section of the centre and entered the room.

None of us took very much time to get ready for bed, hell! Brendan literally came into the room and flopped face onto the bed and didn't move afterwards. I changed and crawled into bed and Riley soon was in bed too.

But even with the room dark and my body exhausted, all I could do was stare at the roof and think. I first let my mind wander to some ideal fantasy which usual puts me to asleep right away but it seemed like I just couldn't get into it, I just kept thinking about tomorrow. I had a feeling that I would regret it if I didn't challenge the gym but… No. I can't keep telling myself I would lose. I had Kuro, Kinoki and Kite. All three of my pokemon had moves that would be effective against rock types that the gym specialized in. Something in my head squeaked, _you had the advantage in the fight against Jay too. _But I tried my best to shake that thought out of my mind.

I was swamped with worry and it felt like I would never fall asleep. I shifted and turned, feeling self-concious of the sound of the sheets rubbing up against each other and I hoped I wasn't being two loud for Riley and Brendan. I was about to shift cautiously once again when I heard the door of our room open and close. I paused, and just laid there, thinking that I might have imagined it at first but after a few minutes I sat up in my bed and looked across the room to see Brendan's bed was empty. Did Brendan leave? Why?

I laid back down, deciding not to dirty my hands in whatever affairs Brendan was dealing with. But as I laid there, laying flat like a stiff board my mind couldn't pull away from what Brendan could possibly doing out of bed. I balanced between my two options. I could just lay here and wait for sleep to engulf me (if it ever did) or I could go find Brendan. Even though my body ached with fatigue, my mind had other plans. I needed to find out what that boy was up to, otherwise I will obsess over it and I will _never _get to sleep. I slowly shifted into a seated position on my bed and quickly darted across the room to the front entrance area and slipped my runners on. Of course I had no idea where Brendan could have gone but that didn't stop me from looking for him. I quietly jogged down to the lobby and looked around. The large windows that every centre had let in large panes of moon light and just outside I saw the top of Brendan's hat peeking up at the bottom of the window. Quietly, I tip-toed across the lobby to the front door and the automatic doors slid open startling Brendan. When he saw it was me standing at the entrance of the door, he stood up from where he was sitting and slurred, "What are you doing here?" He stumbled back a tiny bit as he spoke.

A shiny metal container was in his hand and I recognized it to be one that usually carried whiskey in it, "Brendan… Are you drunk?"

Brendan wobbled back and forth for a few seconds and than slumped back down to sit on the ground. Grouchily he murmured, sounding much like a child who had been caught stealing cookies, "No."

I sat down beside him, although leaving a foot between us. "It sure as Hell looks like it to me." Even with the distance between us I could still smell the toxic scent of alcohol on him.

He rested his face in his palm and slowly dragged his hand up and than through his hair, pushing his hat off-kilter. He muttered, "Okay… Maybe I am…. A-a little…" With his free hand, he brought the canister up to his lips and took another swig of it.

I wrinkled my nose slightly, I had never been fond of the smell of alcohol but he reeked of it. "W-Why are you out drinking here?" It crossed my mind briefly on how he got his hands on whatever he was drinking but I quickly put that thought aside. It wasn't what was important at the moment. I knew something off with him earlier this evening.

Brendan seemed to get agitated by this and he pointed out into thin air, and shouted angrily, "Because- Because- Cuz of that bitch!" He gripped tighter onto his bottle and he looked like he was about to throw it across the front lawn of the centre but at the last second he stopped the momentum of his hand and the tension in his arm went slack and he leaned his head against the wall of the pokemon centre. "Fuck." He growled passively.

I inched closer to him and he gave me a scowl that looked suspicious. "Who?" My mind was listing off anyone who could have made Brendan like this. But I was pulling up empty. I looked at him intently as he stared off into space, he was replying. I whispered again, feeling like I was treading on thin ice, "Who…?"

Brendan groaned and rolled his head around, "Fucking Holly Small."

At first had no idea who he was talking about until I whispered, "That girl that beat me in the competition?" This only made me even more confused, how could she create such distress for Brendan? I removed another inch between us, trying to ignore the overpowering scent of alcohol in the air and just focus on Brendan. "But why are you…?" My voice trailed off.

I sat there looking at Brendan's weary face as he just stared out at nothing. Silence falling over the two of us and I began feeling like Brendan was never going to answer my question when he parted his lips and muttered, "Kirai…"

I couldn't help but ask once again, "Who…?"

Brendan blinked a few times and sighed, obviously exasperated at my lack of understanding. But it appeared he couldn't even form the ideas quite right himself, "It's milotic…"

Milotic…? As in Brendan's pokemon, that's what he calls her…? Kirai? But what does Milotic have to do with Holly Small… Didn't Brendan rescue her as a feebas from some trainer? Is…? "Holly was… Um, Kirai's trainer before?" I iterated my conclusion out loud.

Brendan slumped down and rested his face against his knees and said nothing but I assumed I hit it right on the nose. I looked out in front of me and just listen to the husky breathing beside me. I didn't know what to say so I just sat there looking up at the night sky, it wasn't like I was going to sleep anyways. But eventually I did begin to feel my eyelids grow heavy and my mind wander into oblivion. I was about to completely fall asleep when I felt something rest on my thigh. My eyes shot open and I looked down to see Brendan's head resting heavily in my lap, his previously tense face had found relaxation in slumber. I was shocked out of my drowsiness and I opened and closed my mouth like a landed magikarp. I was about to shove him off but something stopped me. I hadn't seen Brendan's face this pleasant since I first met him. I sat there, looking down at the older boy and smiled. He looked so child-like when there wasn't a scowl on his face, if only he could be this cute all the time.

No, I didn't just let that phrase slip through my mind. I didn't just call the boy who is always cold and condescending to me, _cute. _But even with these unusual thoughts making their way through my head, I needed to get to bed. I need to sleep. Maybe sleep can chase away these crazy thoughts of Brendan being _cute_. I carefully shifted, cautious not to jar Brendan's head. As I was about to slid out from underneath Brendan's weight, his arm reached out and grabbed onto the pant leg of my pyjama bottoms, "Please don't leave…" He breaths out huskily. I paused, my breathing slow. I eyed him and it appeared that he wasn't fully awake, I doubted he even knew who I was.

I whispered to him, "We have to go back to the room." When I was trying to sneak away, it hadn't even crossed my mind whether or not I was going to leave Brendan to sleep out here but now that I can't even move without Brendan gripping onto me like some overly needy preschooler I better make sure my hammered companion makes it back to the room.

He cuddled up against my thighs and murmured some incoherent phrases. Shit. How am I supposed to get out of this?

**And I'm hoping that will tide you guys over until I can pound out another chapter... ANOTHER CHAPTER WITH BATTLES :D! **

**So, I'm hoping I'm able to get the gang out of Rustboro next chapter and than more OC's~ (Don't think I forgot about you two!) **

**Like always, I hoped you enjoyed, and pretty please, review!**


	13. Roxanne VS Riley

**HEY GUYS! How is everyone? Well it's been a little bit less than a month than the last chapter (You guys happy, I updated quicker this time xD) This is obviously the next chapter. And I have a few things I liked to mention: One, I'm thinking about doing an audio reading of the first chapter and putting it up on 'the youtubes' but I need some voices because well... I refuse to a bizillion voices (because majority of them will sound the same) So you know... Whatevs, just want some input on the idea and anyone interesting in helping. Second thing: I was wondering if maybe some people could do some fanart... I want some stuff to show in the audio reading... I would do the art myself but high school is a bitch... So if I could get people who like the story to contribute, that would be... you know... EPIC! Just PM or leave a review if you're interested in helping me out! And that's pretty much it... I hope you enjoy the newest chapter :3**

Eventually after some tedious shenanigans, I managed to get Brendan and myself back up to the room. Even though he was skinny, didn't make him any easier to move him. Note to self, never ever feel pity for Brendan again… I'm glad the pokemon centre was empty because this sure as hell was a strange sight, some short ginger girl dragging a lanky unconscious eighteen year old boy up to the rooms in the back in the wee hours of the morning… Even I was jumping to conclusions about myself and I knew the circumstances! I finally got up to the room and shuffled into the bedroom and threw Brendan onto his bed and crawled into my own. Frick, I doubt he'll remember anything tomorrow… I doubt he'll even be able to function with that hungover he'll have. Feeling fatigue catching up with me from carrying Brendan up to the room, I let my eyelids fall heavy and sleep soon found me.

It seemed that I had only been asleep for five minutes when I felt warm sunlight caress my face, gently waking me up. My eyes fluttered open and found myself lying tangled up in my bedsheets, laying on my arm funny. I struggled to find a more comfortable position. I tried to fall back asleep but it was no use, I was awake and my body knew it… I might as well get up. I shimmied and shook my way out of the sheets tangled around my body and sat up in my bed. Brendan was still knocked out cold and was snoring softly in his bed but Riley's bed was empty. I looked around the room but the sound of muted water pattering against an acrylic tube reached my ears. He must be showering. I stretched upwards and reached for my bag, better get ready.

I was dressed by the time Riley got out of the shower. His usually spiky hair seemed much longer wet, reaching down to his shoulders, he gave me a smile as he sauntered out of the bathroom, "So you ready to head over to the gym?" I sat on my unmade bed and shrugged.

"Yeah, I guess…"

He gave me a look of concern, and mentioned, "You can just come watch… No ones going to make you challenge the gym…"

I stared at my socked feet, "Yeah… I know." I stumbled onto my feet and gave Riley a forced smile, "So might as well get going."

The dark haired boy nodded and his eyes wandered over to Brendan, "Shouldn't we get Brendan up?"

I shook my head, "No, let him sleep." I briefly glanced in his direction and added, "I'll just leave him a note on where we're going."

Riley gave me an unsure look, "If you say so."

Luckily when we came to the gym, it appeared as though there were no other challengers today so Roxanne was free to challenge Riley. When we reached the gym, Riley asked me hesitantly if I was going to challenge and I didn't have an answer for him, but I did fill out a form but didn't give it to the staff of the gym. Riley had to give his Trainer IDs, describe his trainer experience and such before a gym trainer lead Riley off to the main field and told me I could watch from the bleachers, they were just down the hall way on the left.

I followed the directions and found myself standing on the left side of the battle field and I quickly took a seat on the first row, wanting to be as close as possible to the fight. I was the only person on this side of the field but as my eyes took in the whole arena I noticed that there were at least ten or more people on the other side and they were already cheering loudly, "Go Roxanne! Whoop this trainer!" Or something along those lines.

I sat there quietly for a moment, not sure what to cheer out as Riley stood on one side and the gym leader on the other. I looked to the gym leader, Roxanne. I had never seen her in real life before, just on tv and in photos. But she didn't look much different. Roxanne looked to be in her early twenties and had long dark brown hair which was tied up in pigtails with pink ribbon, matching the leggings she was wearing with what looked like a school uniform. The battle referee walked out to the centre line of the field and stood there waiting for Roxanne's signal to start the battle.

I looked over to Riley, he seemed to be rolling a pokeball back and forth in his hand, ready to get this battle started but the female gym leader called out, "So you want a two on two gym battle, I hear?" Her voice wasn't high and girly like I expected but commanded a certain power with it, I guess it came with being a teacher at the pokemon academy in Rustboro.

Riley nodded and called out across the field, "Yeah, hope that's not a problem."

Roxanne smiled, and shook her head slowly, "Of course it isn't." She looked to the referee, "Please start the battle."

The referee nodded and began to recite off the rules that every official battle had, "Each trainer will be allowed to use two pokemon each, only the challenger is allowed to make substitutions. The challenge will be over when either trainer's pokemon are unable to battle. Begin!"

Roxanne, being the gym leader, released her first pokemon before Riley did, calling out, "Come on out, Nosie." She tossed the pokeball into the air, releasing a blue rock type pokemon I recognized as Nosepass. The pokemon didn't move, it just stood there on the field and it looked like Riley was sizing it up. But Roxanne called out, "Choose your Pokemon, Riley."

He looked up with his grey eyes and slowly adjusted his hat and held up the pokeball he had been playing with in his hand before, "Come on out Ri."

I gave a little sigh of relief, for a moment I swore he was going to use Char first and that would just end with disaster since rock types have a massive advantage over fire types but with Ri, he probably could sweep her team… Or at least I hoped. I cheered, feeling excitement whelming up in my chest, "Yay! Go Riley!" I sat up from the bleacher and waved my arm around. He briefly looked up from the field and it looked like he gave me a small smile but seemed to not want to get distracted.

Roxanne began the fight by calling out, "Nosie, use rock polish." The rock type didn't move but I notice something changed about it, I think it got… Glosser?

Riley quickly replied with, "Ri, use bulk up." The small dog like pokemon puffed up his chest and made a small barking sound.

I swivelled my vision back to the gym leader and she had a condescending look on her face, "Really? You're going to be on the defensive with a fighting type like that Riolu, that's laughable." She laughed again, and called once again, "Nosie, rock polish again." I didn't know what her game was, but I think she was trying to get Riley to act rashly in this battle. I knew she was smart and she probably had plan up her sleeve even with this type disadvantage. I glanced back to Riley and he seemed to waiting for something. But quickly he called again, "Use bulk up." Obviously, he wasn't going to change his plans.

The two pokemon stood at odds for a moment until Roxanne called out, "Nosie, use sandstorm." The nose pokemon began to move for the first time in the entire battle, it's two block like arms began to spin rapidly whipping the dust from the arena into the air, in a matter of seconds the attack had summoned a violent storm of grit and dust. Even with straining my eyes, I barely could make out what was happening on the field anymore but with the power of that sandstorm, it would definitely take a toll on the fighting type.

Riley began to fidget, scrambling for what to do next but finally he called out, "Ri, charge in and use force palm!"

I had trouble seeing through the sandstorm but I did see a small dark figure charge from one side of the arena towards the Nosepass and I called out, "You got this Ri!"

Roxanne calmly commanded, "Nosie, grab onto that Riolu." I couldn't see anything but I heard a sharp yelp from the field. The sandstorm began to subside, allowing the audience to witness what had just happened. The small dog pokemon was caught between the Nosepass' arms, unable to escape. Riley stuttered, "Ri! Get out of there!" But it was obvious the fighting type pokemon didn't have a hope of escaping that vice grip. Roxanne let the audience witness this act of dominance, and I could see a smirk developing on her lips. Riley was becoming flustered when Roxanne called out, "Nosie, use discharge." The rock pokemon began to give off visible static and than released a blinding blast of electricity lighting the field, forcing me to cover my eyes momentarily. In half a second, the blast dissipated leaving the the field full of static. Roxanne didn't say anything just smiled across the battle arena at Riley, silently bragging about her own power. Her nosepass without any commands threw Ri across the arena, and he fell into a little ball of fur. The referee was about to call the battle off but Roxanne stopped him, "You can switch your pokemon, you know Riley?"

Riley was looking down at his feet and he didn't say anything. Everyone in the audience watched intently and ever so slowly, the small Riolu rose to his feet, static from the electric attack still lingering and twitching at the pokemon's muscles. He was paralyzed. The arena was silent as everyone watched the small pokemon struggle to even stay on his feet. Roxanne finally broke the silence, "You know who's going to win this, don't you?"

Riley gave her a stone cold look, "Than finish it."

Roxanne brushed her bangs aside and called, "Nosie, use tackle."

The blue rock pokemon charged towards the weak fighting type faster than I thought a rock pokemon could move and I looked away, not wanting to see the end of this fight when Riley called out, "Ri, reversal!"

I looked up at as quickly as I could and I only caught sight of Ri picking up Nosepass and slamming it down into the arena leaving a crater. I couldn't believe what I had just seen, I had legitimately thought Riley had given up, but he was only luring Roxanne into commanding her pokemon to come in close so he could use reversal, which would not only be super effective but because of the damage Ri has taken it would become a super strong move. The referee looked just as shocked as everyone in the audience did but he slowly called, "Nosepass is no longer able to battle."

Just as he called those words out, Riolu fell down into a knee as the effects of the paralysis worsened. Riley quickly pulled out Ri's ball and returned him to his home in a flash of red light. My eyes flipped over to Roxanne and she seemed impressed but pissed nevertheless. "Excellent timing… But whatever your next pokemon is, it won't stand a chance against my last pokemon."

She pulled out a greatball and released a Kabutops. I had never seen one in real life like this, since they don't exist in the wild now a days but he was magnificent. His light brown shell was glossy and he looked ready for battled.

And all that Riley had left was Charmander… Unless he was going to use Lustre… But would he use Lustre for something like this…? It looked like Riley was caught between a rock and a hard place but slowly he took a pokeball from his belt and called out, "Come on out!"

In a flicker of white light, the small fire lizard was on the field. I bit my lip, Riley was really at a type and level disadvantage here. What was he going to do? I didn't have long to think about it before Riley called out, "Char, use smokescreen."

The fire pokemon shot out a small black ball which released smoke, creating a cover for the lizard to hid in.

Roxanne retorted, "Use slash, find Charmander."

I could see the black smoke quiver and waver as the Kabutops' large scythe sliced through the smoke and if I squinted my eyes I could see the small flame on the end of Char's tail dart around.

I than heard a command come from Riley, "Use dragon rage!"

Beside the small flame, a deep blue glow appeared which grew until a vicious beam shot from behind where I assumed the Kabutops was swinging through the smoke. The blue light definitely hit something solid and splash back shot out from the smoke, leaving dark scorches on the walls around the arena. Holes in the smoke appeared from the dragon rage and the smoke slowly faded away. To reveal an irritated looking Kabutops' and an overly confident looking Charmander.

There was a moment of shock on Roxanne's face until a look of sheer pleasure replaces it, "Buto, aqua jet." There was no time to react, no time to scream for Char to run away. All anyone could do was watch as the Kabutops was enveloped in water and shot at the Charmander, dealing a single hit KO.

Roxanne laughed, her amusement sent shivers through my body, were all gym leaders this ruthless? "Are you going to admit defeat? Your Riolu is in no condition to be sent back into battle." The dark haired boy swiftly returned his small flame lizard.

Than Riley stared at her from across the field and paused. For a moment, I swore he was going to withdraw his challenged but slowly he pulled out a pokeball, "Come on out Ri." And released his weakened fighting type.

The Riolu looked better after having a short rest, but the static from the paralysis was still hindering the pokemon's muscles. Roxanne sighed, "If you truly want it that way…" She crossed her arms and called, "Buto, aerial ace." The prehistoric pokemon began to glow blue and than started to charge towards Riolu, suddenly it disappeared, leaving a trail of blue and I knew this was the end of the battle, my gut clenched as I watched. But suddenly there was a clash of white and blue light causing me to squint. What had happened? I think everyone, even Riley and Roxanne were confused in what exactly happened until everyones eyes had adjusted.

Ri was taller… Wait, more was different…. It finally clicked in my mind that Ri had evolved mid-battle, saving himself from being knocked out by Kabutops' attack. He was blocking the rock type pokemon's scythe's with a bar of dark blue light-formed aura- Lucario's specialty.

Quickly, Riley called out, stuttering, just wanting to use this opportunity to get an attack in before Roxanne gathered her senses. "Ri, quick, bone rush!" The freshly evolved pokemon, threw the kabutops' scythes off of his bar of aura and shot towards it, swinging the bar several times at the prehistoric pokemon dealing intense damage with the type advantage. In four heavy hits, the Kabutops' collapsed unconscious. The referee called, "Roxanne's pokemon are no longer able to battle, challenger Riley wins!"

I stood up and cheered, feeling the tension be lifted from my chest. I had thought there was no way for Riley to win, but he had pulled through!

Roxanne sighed, "I underestimated you. Well, congratulation, Riley. You used your pokemon skillfully… You deserve the rock badge."

She sauntered across the rumble filled arena and gave a small pendant from her pocket to Riley.

He smiled widely at the brunette and than looked up at me and continued to grin. I smiled back. Roxanne put her hands on her hips, "Man, I really thought I was going to win!" She pursed her lips out and tapped her foot. Riley jogged over to me to show me his new badge when I got startled by Roxanne shouting out.

"You! The girl with the orange hair. You're a challenger, right?"

She was pointing at me, her face serious once again.

I stuttered, pressing my index finger against my chest, "M-Me?"

**Yay~ Chapter thirteen done! I hope you enjoyed this little battle! And like always, please review! Forgot to mention this, we hit over 1000 views on my story so YAY! So that sort of explains why I want to do something big/new xD**


	14. The First Gym Battle: Roxanne VS Eli

**Long time no see my peeps :D I've just procrastinated so much it's just not fair to anyone. But anyways, here's the long awaited First Gym Battle for Eli. So enjoy :3**

"M-me?" I stuttered uncontrollably as I pointed hesitantly at my chest. Roxanne crossed her arms in a pretentious manner, "Who else would I be talking to?" She tapped her foot as she waited for a sluggish reply.

"Ah… I…" I frantically looked from the sweet faced gym leader to Riley and back again. I was looking, or rather begging for someone to tell me what I should do. I couldn't make the choice until Riley sighed, "Yeah, she's here for a challenge."

I sat up from the bleacher, "N-" But I cut myself off when I saw the look Riley was giving me. Usually, he never really forced anyone into anything, he's quite passive in that way. But I think he finally got fed up with my indecisiveness and made the call for me.

"Yeah, I'm here for a gym challenge."

Roxanne smirked and quickly turned her back to me and sauntered back to her side of the arena, "Good, ref, hand me this girl's papers."

The ref looked confused for a second, and when Roxanne finally graced him with an irritated look she added, "I don't have all day."

The referee shrugged and looked almost scared of Roxanne as she turned her back on him and huffed, "Hey, you filled out a form, right?"

She wasn't looking directly at me and at first I was confused at who she was talking to until I finally murmured, "Umm… Well…" I felt the ridge of the paper in the small pocket of my dress but I didn't feel as if I could reach and retrieve it.

Roxanne face scrunched up and she glared at me, "Why wouldn't you fill out a form if you came here for a gym match?"

I opened my mouth but no reply came out, Roxanne was just… So intimidating. Why is she a teacher? She must make kids cry all the time…. Hell, she was making me want to cry. I opened and closed my mouth a couple times and Riley was about to chime in for me but Roxanne waved her hand before he could reply, "Whatever, I don't have time for that. How many badges do you have?"

"None." I mewed to myself.

Roxanne looked at me unimpressed and took a quick glance at the clock. "Let's make it just a two on two battle again… I got a pokemon logistics class to teach in a half an hour."

I carefully crawled over top the boards separating the bleachers and the field and walked with an unsure stride to the challenger side of the arena. Roxanne confidently pulled out a third pokeball and released her pokemon without any hesitation. With a flash of white light, a flaccid plant looking pokemon was on her side of the field. At first the pokemon looked strange and unfamiliar to me but after second look I recall seeing it in one of my texts back in school but I couldn't recall anything about it.

Roxanne pushed some of her hair back, "That's a Lileep, if you were curious. But can you just hurry up and pick your pokemon?"

I carefully unzipped my side pouch and looked at my three pokeballs. I wish she wouldn't pressure me so much, but with my brain flickering from thought to thought, I recalled that Lileep being a grass rock type. Kite wouldn't be a good choice for this… Neither would Kinoko… That left Kuro. This would be my very first… Well full battle with Kuro as a fully evolved pokemon. I grabbed his pokeball and released him. When he materialized on the field his hackles were fully raised and he was raring to go.

The second Kuro was on the field, the ref recited the same thing he had for Riley's battle. Roxanne didn't even wait for the last words of the battle rules to be utter before she called out, "Lil, use confuse ray."

I was caught completely off guard as her pokemon sent visible, rippling rings across the arena at Kuro, I didn't even have time to ask him to dodge it and it was a direct hit. Kuro stumbled and fell down whimpering and covering his ears with his front paws.

"Kuro, come on. Get up!" I called out but he was ignoring my commands.

Roxanne snickered, "Wow, you really don't have an gym badges…" She continued, "Lil, use constrict." The plant pokemon moved surprisingly fast (for waddling over that is) towards Kuro and wrapped it's sticky base around the mightyena's rib cage. The dog pokemon began to panic but couldn't shake the pokemon from his body. Roxanne laughed and yelled out another command, "Now use ingrain."

Normally, ingrain would just allow the pokemon to gain health from the earth but I had a feeling Roxanne had something different in mind. The Lileep adjusted it's stubby tentacles and suddenly Kuro cried out, his deep howls rising the little hairs all over my body. "What the hell are you doing to Kuro?" I screamed across the field.

My eyes glanced to her pokemon who was swaying and throbbing up and down as it bared down on the dark pokemon. Roxanne saw the concern in my eyes, "Most people think that ingrain can't be used offensively. That's where they're wrong. Ingrain simply drains energy from whatever the roots touch, that's including living things." She looked only too pleased with herself as she explained her strategy.

I bit my lip, trying to think of what I could do. Mightyena looked too panicked to even listen to my commands, or maybe that was the effect of the confuse ray. I was caught in between a rock and a hard place.

It looked like the battle was near finished as the grass type sapped the energy slowly from Kuro, and both Roxanne and her Lileep looked eager to finish. All they needed to do was use one move and it'd be all over. I could see a greenish juice start collecting on the tentacles on the top of Lileep's head, it was preparing to use an acid attack.

… Why did I agree to do this? I should've just stood up for myself and said no. I didn't want my pokemon to get hurt like this, fuck… Fuck!

I was about to call off the match when I saw it. It was a sudden look of awareness in Kuro's dark brown eyes. He was looking directly at me and it suddenly occurred to me, the confuse ray effects were wearing off! Roxanne seemed to be too enthralled in the performance of her pokemon to even notice that Kuro was no longer confused.

This was our chance. I called out, feeling like Kuro didn't have much time, "Quick, use ice fang!"

Roxanne eyes darted away from the fight and looked at me, silently saying, 'What the hell are you talking about?' .

Kuro, finally collecting his frazzled mind from the confusion, opened his jaw revealing a set of long chilled fangs and clamped down on the think neck of Roxanne's Lileep and began to shake until the suction pokemon let go of Kuro's rib cage. Roxanne being caught off guard squealed, "Lil, use acid, hurry!"

But it was already to late, with only one swift move Kuro was able to knock the rock type out. The ref brought up a flag and declared, "Lileep is no longer able to battle."

Roxanne looked beyond angry and she quietly cursed and I heard bits like, "What the hell?" and "Lucky." but she didn't stand down for too long before she pulled out her Lileep's pokeball, returning it to its home and retrieved a second pokemon. She released her last pokemon and like her previous pokemon it wasn't familiar to me. But this one I had never seen in my life. It looked like a blue turtle covered with rocky armour. I couldn't help but speak what came to mine, "I've never seen that pokemon before…" I was growing more and more aware that my knowledge of pokemon was actually quite slim.

The gym leader belittled me with her eyes and than answered even though it was really a question, "It's a Tirtouga, a pokemon I got on a trip to Unova."

I had only heard bits and pieces about Unova since it was so far away across the ocean and well… Growing up in Littleroot was really… sheltered. But I quickly brought my brain back onto track, I pulled out Kuro's pokeball and returned him. I could see how he was struggling to stay on his paws and how heavy his breathe was, he had taken a lot of damage from the battle against Lileep. He didn't put up any resistance to being pulled out of the battle. I already had I good feeling about which pokemon I was going to use.

"Kinoko! Come on out!" With a lightning fast flash of cold white light, the small mushroom pokemon was exposed to the battle field. She shook her body filling the air around her with glittering particles. This time I didn't let Roxanne get in the first move, "Kinoko, use leech seed!"

The small pokemon's body shook violently as it shot out dozens of tiny seeds at the water rock pokemon. When these near invisible seeds made contact with the scaly blue skin of Roxanne's Tirtouga, they bursted open and small vines grew rapidly from the germinated seeds. These insta-vines then wrapped around and tangled themselves around Tirtouga.

I could see Roxanne bite her lip from across the field and she retorted with a swift command, "Use withdraw!"

Her pokemon disappeared into it's shell, but I could see that the effects of leech seed were still effecting the pokemon, even if the vines weren't making contact with the softer flesh of Tirtouga. I heard a slight curse from Roxanne but I didn't give it to much mind before I guided Kinoko to her next move, "Use mega drain!" But before the small mushroom pokemon could begin draining the remaining energy from the water pokemon, Roxanne commanded her pokemon, "Tirtou, use ice beam from inside your shell."

I was about to retort for Kinoko to dodge the attack but before the words could leave my mouth, a bright jagged line of light shot from the Tirtouga's shell and made direct contact with my grass pokemon sending the small pokemon flying into my calves, nearly knocking me on my butt. Kinoko whimpered and shuffled closer to my leg, not wanting to go back on the field. I knelt down and rested my hand on top of her head, but she to squirm and whine. This was her first real battle after all and she had only been hit by either Kuro or Kite's attacks. This was really new for her and she honestly didn't seem to like it. I furrowed my eyebrows and considered withdrawing her and sending Kuro out on the field. But if I returned Kinoko now… That would be like… Giving up on her…

If I let her hit a wall here, she'll always expect me to pull her out on the first sight of danger… I can't allow myself to give her an opportunity to doubt herself like I did… If I hadn't had mum, Brendan, or Riley pushing me when I had doubts… I don't know where I would be… Probably home regretting ever leaving. I have to push Kinoko like my friends had for me.

I stood up and pointed out to Roxanne's pokemon, who had come out of hiding. "Kinoko, go out there and get in real close."

The small grass pokemon looked up at me with hesitation but at seeing the resolve in my eyes, proceeded to trot back into the arena towards Tirtouga.

Roxanne, seeing that one more move would most likely knock the shroomish out, commanded, "Tirtou, you meet up with that Shroomish and use bite."

Her pokemon and mine charged towards each other and for this last part of the battle to go in my favour I had to time this thing just right. I saw Tirtouga open it's mouth with anticipation as it waddled towards Shroomish and within a second before it clamped down on my pokemon I called out, "Jump!"

Shroomish without any pause, leapt into the air with her short legs and I added, "Now use bullet seed while in the air." With this last command, Kinoko shifted in the air and aimed the top of her head downwards at the water pokemon and shot three glowing seeds from the top of her head landing directly on Tirtouga creating three loud pop sounds on contact. Kinoko finished the move with a confident look on her face but as she came back down from her jump she fell onto the ground with a soft plop stumbling as she came in contact with the floor.

As the dust settled from the last attack, the referee watched carefully to see if Tirtouga had survived the attack. As visibility improved I bit my lip in anticipation, and as soon as the water pokemon's form was in sight I felt relief flow through me. Because what I saw was an unconscious Tirtouga on the field. I let a smile slip onto my lips and looked over to Riley and he was smiling back at me. I had done it. The referee lifted his flag and called out for everyone in the auditorium to hear, "Tirtouga is no longer able to battle. Roxanne's out of useable pokemon. Challenger…" He looked at me, realizing he didn't know my name. I called out with a delighted tone, "Eli!"

"Challenger Eli wins!"

Roxanne sighed, realizing her defeat and walked out into the field and picked up Tirtouga in her arms. She than looked over to me with cold eyes, "Congratulations. You won. You fairly won the Rock badge."

I smiled and I felt something overcome me. What was this feeling? Accomplishment? No… I think it's… Gratitude.

I bowed my head to the gym leader, "Thank you, Roxanne."

The young woman walked over to me with her exhausted pokemon and bashfully said, her aura of intimidation fading away, "Don't thank me. You deserve it." She carefully carried her Tirtouga in her left arm as she retrieve the badge from her right pocket and handed it to me with her warm dry hands. I cupped my hand and felt the weight of the badge being placed into my palm. I looked down at the badge and grinned, this was a symbol. This was a symbol that I deserved my friends, that I deserved my pokemon, that I deserved the life of a pokemon trainer. This is what I was meant to do with my life… At least that what I think…

Oh and there I go again. I looked up to Roxanne, "Thank you again, I guess me and my companion will be going."

Roxanne smiled at me for the first time and the approving warmth sent shivers through me, "Have a safe journey."

**I'm aware that I have like three OC's still missing in action and next chapter that will be down to two. Promise. Than hopefully the chapter after that everyone will have had made an appearance by then. **

**Also, still looking at doing a dramatic reading of the first chapter. Anyone interested in helping do voices? Pm me.**

**And like always, leave a review! (My creative brain is sustained on them .!)**


	15. Trouble in Rustboro

**Yeah, updated quickly! Not much to say. Just saying now... Currency, I'm aware in the pokemon world it's called Pokedollars but that sounds stupid... So i'm calling them Yen since the pokedollar sign is really similar (when I was younger I just called them yen anyways... I was weird that way) Also, a friend brought to my attention... Dattle means to waste time... Just found out it's not a word... My life has been a lie... Anyways, ENJOY THE CHAPTER!**

We didn't dattle long around the gym, since now that the stress of the gym battle was out of mind I couldn't help but worry a tiny bit about Brendan, even if he was the biggest douche of them all. On the walk back to the pokemon centre, I filled Riley in on what had happened last night. "So when I go downstairs to check it out, I see Brendan hammered into oblivion. It was stupid trying to get him back up to the room after he passed out!" I rambled as I stretched up feeling the heat of the late morning getting to me.

Riley was falling a tiny bit behind me and was quiet for a moment. I casually looked back and asked, "Skitty got your tongue?"

Riley shrugged, taking his hat off to fan himself. "Dunno... I guess... It doesn't really matter."

I swivelled around on my heels, and started walking backwards, not worried about bumping into anyone since we hadn't made it to the main street yet. "Come on, we just won our first gym battle, you should be all happy, optimistic and shit! Tell me what's on your mind!" I grinned, trying to demonstrate the type of behavior I expected out of him.

"Well... Brendan's older than both of us... And well... He might not..." Riley struggled to find the best way to express his concern, "...Have your better interests in mind." He uncomfortably avoided my eyes as he spoke.

I slowed my step, "Umm... What are you getting at, bud?"

He continued, still looking up at the overhanging tree branches, "Just... Don't let him make you do anything you don't want too..."

I stopped completely and rested my palm on his chest, making him halt. "You aren't seriously giving me this talk are you?"  
Riley gently grabbed the wrist of the hand on his chest, "Could you please just hear me out?" He finally made direct eye contact with me, his dark eyes just begging for me to consider what he was saying.

The smile on my face slowly slipped away, he was really serious about this. I had known Riley for my whole life and he was always the cautious one. Always the one that talked me out of making a big mistake even when my parents didn't know how to change my mind. He was always spot on too... But...

"Lighten up, Riley!" I shook off his grasp and began to skip ahead, "You're starting to sound like my dad, 'Oh, the world's so dangerous!'" I laughed, although it rang hollow in my ears, "Brendan thinks I'm just some stupid noob anyways!" I didn't look back to see Riley's reaction but I quickly concluded, "Which means, I have to get back to the centre and rub my badge in his face!" I dashed off in the direction of the main street that runs through all of Rustboro. "Come on! Don't get left behind!"

When we arrived back at the centre, the whole place was a bustle. There was a massive line up at the video phone and an even longer line up at the front desk. I heard clippets about boats and a building but nothing about what exactly had happened. We scurried back up to our room and when I came crashing in, expecting to see Brendan lounging on the couch, I exclaimed, "What's going on?"

But instead of him sitting on the couch he was wrapped up like a silcoon in the blankets of his bed. "Arceus dammit! Shut the hell up!"

I let Riley in behind me and slowly and quietly shut the door. Apparently, Brendan had yet to recover from his hangover. Now with a quieter tone, I reiterated, "What's going on in Rustboro?"

Brendan rolled over, covering his head with his blanket, "How am I supposed to know?"

Riley went and sat down on the sofa and sighed. "It looks like we might have trouble getting out of the city either way." He bent and rested his chin on the heel of his palm.

I put my hand on my hip and pursed my lips. My mind quickly went to on finding out what had happened. I looked to Riley, "Your poketch has a news app doesn't it?"

He lifted his wrist and pushed back his long sleeve revealing a watch looking device. "Yeah, I think." He began tapping away at the screen and he spoke into the watch, "Rustboro, July Tenth"

I sauntered over to the couch and settled beside Riley and tried to look over his shoulder at the poketch. Eventually he able to pull up a video and played it.

I managed to see over Riley's shoulder a woman in a pale pink suit dress with a microphone in hand on the small screen and she looked to be standing on a harbour bay.

"Southern Hoenn is in shock after unknown individuals blew up three commercial fishermen boats and a storage building last night. Their intentions are unknown and casualties are still being withheld by the press. But the question that everyone is asking is whether this is an isolated incident or if this is a continuation of terror wreaked on Mossdeep city just three days prior. The Elite Four is currently working with both Senior Gym Leaders and law enforcement to track down any information on these events." She continued on to giving numbers citizen's could call if they had information and eventually passed it onto the weatherman. I lend back on the couch and sighed, "Oh Arceus..."

Brendan was now sitting up in his bed and had his face pressed against his knees, "Dewford has probably put restrictions on ship transport and that's why everything is so congested down there."

I looked up to the ceiling and felt a ball of worry set in my chest, I wonder if Mum and Dad had caught ear of this yet. They lived in Littleroot, so they were pretty isolated down there but... If Mum had the news on at all today. They were probably worried sick. I stood up from the couch, "I need to phone my parents."

Riley crossed his arms, "Don't you remember that massive line up, everyone is probably thinking the exact same thing."  
I fell back onto the couch. "You're right..." I rubbed my face with my hand. I needed to let my parents know I was okay, and we needed to get out Rustboro but ever since the tunnel Verdenturf Town collapse last year, the only way to travel to Northern, Eastern or even parts of Southern Hoenn you needed to go by water. But the chances are, Rustboro's harbour has been locked down tight.

Brendan curled back up on the bed, "You could phone your family with my Pokenav if you need too."

My head perked up, "Really?" I sat forward.

Brendan grumbled, barely audible, "Yeah, sure. It's in my pack."

I scrambled onto my feet and dived towards his bag, "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" I tore the pack open and flung some things out of it. After finding a few things that I rather had not found I managed to retrieve the Pokenav.  
I opened up the device and used the touch screen to dial my father's nav. It rang a few times until I was greeted with heavy white noise. I spoke into the small device, "Hello?" And through all that white noise I was startled by hearing my dad's voice yell through it, "ELI? ELI IS THAT YOU?"

I held the pokenav away from myself a tiny bit and responded, "Umm... Yeah, Dad."

There was a long pause and eventually he yelled back, "KAY, LET ME JUST LAND!" The whistling white noise grew much louder and then thankfully subsided. "Sorry, you caught me doing patrols, dear. What's up?"

I made the assumption by the cheerful tone in his voice that he hadn't heard about what had happened in Rustboro. "I just wanted to let you know that I was okay..."

There was a pause on the other end of the line. "What do you mean?"

I took in a shallow breath and slowly explained what had happened, trying my best to not make it sound like a big deal. Again, there was a long pause on the phone. I whispered, "Ah... Dad?"

I heard some rustle in the background and finally my Dad replied, "I'm coming to get you. Right now."

I began stuttering, "N-No. That won't be-" But he hung up before I could say anything more. I tapped the end call icon on the screen of the pokenav and sighed. "Dad's coming to Rustboro..." I sprawled out on the floor, "Said he's going to come pick me up. "

All of us had gone downstairs (against Brendan's wishes) into the main lobby area to see if we could hear anymore about what had happened at the harbor last night but mostly there was just panic quips about family members and such. But no more than a half an hour hanging downstairs with our pokemon I saw a very familiar person come storming into the centre followed by a Dragonite with a small messenger back at it's side. The crowd parted for him because of his iconic uniform of a pokemon ranger and he went straight to the front desk, "Where is my daughter?" He slammed his fist down on the desk and his Dragonite mimicked the motion right beside him. Nurse Joy, who had been in the middle of talking with someone in line looked a tad shock.

"Y-Your Daughter?"

Hesitantly, I looked up over the white sofa all three of us were sitting on and called out, my voice weak with embarrassment. "Dad?"

The seriousness in his face as he turned to me melted away and he dashed over to me, "Oh, there you are Eli-Beli!" He laughed loudly, Dragonite quickly joined in with his trainer.

"Dad. Stop. Please." I begged quietly to him, my eyes worriedly looking at the pokemon centre as it fell silent. I'm never ever coming back to this pokemon centre... Ever...

He's composition reverted back to it's usual calm confidence as he got over his initial stress and then relief, "Are you ready to leave, Eli?" He rested his knuckles on his waist.

"That's what I wanted to talk about, Dad. Can you come back up to the room with us?" I just wanted to get out of the prying eyes of pretty much every single person in the centre.

Our group quickly retreated back to the room we had been staying in. My Dad didn't waste any time in settled on one of the bed's along with his Dragonite who sat down on the couch causing the frame to creak. I silently prayed it would hold underneath the dragon types weight. Kite was curled up on my shoulder, nearly dozing as I paced in front of my father.

"Well..." He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his dark gray pants. "What did you want to talk about?"

I carefully weaved my fingers together and rung them back and forth. "Dad... I don't want to go home with you..." I felt Riley's and Brendan's eyes resting on my back as I paused in my pacing. As I turned and began pacing once again, I saw both of the boys sitting on either side of the Dragonite looking uncomfortable beside the behemoth of a pokemon.

My Dad didn't say anything and only looked at me for a moment. I nervously waited for him to say something. "Eli... There has recently been a incident... Who knows where they will target next..."

I held my arms out, "But Dad-" My voice edging on whiney. But he simply put out his hand, stopping me before I could go on a tangent.

"You are aware that even if I didn't take you home, the boat that would be taking you to Dewford isn't going anywhere." He was right. But... This was important... Maybe we could find a pokemon to help us cross the strait between the mainland and island.

I sighed and crumbled to the floor, rubbing my forehead. "But... Dad..." I whimpered, "This means a lot..." I was acting like a spoiled brat... "To me..." Just a few days prior, I was willing to go home within a moments notice but something has changed. I found... I guess self-worth and letting my Dad simply take me back home now would take that away from me. Even if continuing my journey could result in putting my life endangered... After having a small taste of freedom, I simply couldn't go back to living day to day in Littleroot.

Silence fell over the small room and I just pressed my face against my knees as I curled up in a sitting position on the floor.  
"We might be able to work something out..." My Dad stood up to his unnerving full height of six, five and gestured to his pokemon, "Alistair, could you pass me the bag?"

The large pokemon got up from the couch and handed off the messenger bag to the ranger. I looked up from my knees and watched my father rummaged through the bag. After a few seconds, he pulled out a strange looking pokeball I recognized as a netball. Setting the bag on the bed behind him he walked over to me and handed me the ball. I hesitantly accepted the pokeball and asked, "What is this?"

My father returned to his seat on the bed and explained, "This is a pokemon I raised myself... You remember Delora, don't you Eli?"

I held the small capsule that contained the pokemon tightly within my hands, "She's your Lapras, right?" I ran my fingers gently on the ridges on the upper lid of the ball. She was one of the pokemon he met when he was just a teenager travelling through Kanto. I shouldn't accept her, when I began my journey I told my dad I didn't want to use any of either his or Mum's pokemon. "Dad... I can't take her-"

He stopped me, "No, if you want to continue your journey, you have to take her. Otherwise, I will drag you straight back home... Kicking and screaming if I have too." His serious tone was lightened by him adding a calm laugh at the end, "This way, I know you'll be taken care of, I can't trust these two boys to make sure you stay out of trouble..." He laughed as he spoke but soon fell silent, probably coming to the realization that I had been travelling with two teenage boys for the past week without adult supervision, "You two boys better not have any smart ideas..." He pointed at both of them as he narrowed his eyes. Brendan simply shrugged off the passive threat while Riley flushed and tried to stutter a reply, "I-I w-w-wouldn't-"

But my father didn't let him finish, "And, Delora can take you to Dewford too."

I pulled the pokeball to my chest and Kite wiggled on my shoulder to try and sniff at the ball. "Thank you, Dad... Thank you so much..."

Brendan and Riley went down into the lobby with their pokemon to see if they could get any lunch for themselves and their little companions. Leaving my dad and me sometime to catch up, turns out that he was looking at a promotion at his ranger base to the highest rank for Rangers. It would be a big deal if he got it But within a half an hour, he had to leave with Alistair the dragonite back to patrolling the northern part of Hoenn and I awkwardly joined the two boys downstairs. We snacked and listened for any more news about the explosions down by the harbour. But needless to say, we were all getting restless and we knew it was time to look at leaving Rustboro.

Thankfully, we were able to hail one of those pokemon drawn rickshaws to take us down to the harbour, it was about a fifteen minute drive down to the seaside and it was refreshingly cheap only about a thousand yen. We saw yards and yards of police tape around the area. I guess they were closing up the whole place. We walked down the sidewalk for a bit until we came across a small group of three talking to what seemed to be a worker. "What do you mean we can't get through!?" Yelled the shortest of all three. "I have to get to Dewford to challenge the gym leader!"

The worker gently replied, "I'm sorry miss... Since the incident of last night we're shutting down all boat activity until the investigation is done."

There was a familiar looking redhead that gently rested her hand on the girl's shoulder, "Ana, please... We don't need to go today."

I spoke out, the surprise ringing in my voice, "Is that you, Coriander?"

The redhead turned from her frustrated friend, "Oh, Eli, Brendan, Riley. I wasn't expecting to see you so soon!"

**And I set up to meet two more oc's... One more to go... So shits going down and I hoped you liked the latest chapter. Please review ;D**


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